Global economic recovery still fragile : PM

Ahead of the G-20 Summit in Toronto, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said it was necessary for the global economy to continue to recover in a stable and predictable manner without succumbing to protectionist tendencies.

"We need investment and capital flows, as well as an open and rule based trading system that does not succumb to protectionist tendencies," Singh said in a statement before his departure for the two-day Summit from tomorrow during which he will also have talks with US President Barack Obama and other leaders.

Cautioning that the recovery of the global economy was "still fragile and uneven" with new "worrying signs emerging in the Euro zone", Singh said the challenge for the Toronto Summit will be three-fold.

These challenges would be to ensure that global economic recovery is durable, balanced and sustainable; to calibrate exit strategies in the light of growing concerns over expansionary fiscal policies; and to focus on medium and long-term structural issues relating to governance issues, he said.

"As the Indian economy grows and further integrates with the international system, we have an increasingly direct stake in all these matters,"  he said, adding to meet "our ambitious development targets it is necessary that the global economy continue to recover in a stable and predictable manner."

Singh said the coordinated policy actions taken by the G-20 countries since November 2008 have not only helped to prevent a crisis of the type the world saw in the 1930s but also contributed to global economic recovery.

"This is a sign of the G 20’s success. At the same time, we have to be conscious that the recovery is still fragile and uneven. New worrying signs have emerged in the Euro zone," he said.