'Can't give up on growth' a key takeaway

India believes a key takeaway from the G-20 summit is global economic growth has to be an area of focus, even if countries with high sovereign debts have to concentrate on fiscal consolidation.

At a press conference, Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan said: “When world economic growth was being looked at, a reference was made to the slowing of growth in India and China. About India, it was said growth should be consistent with the handing of inflationary pressures.”

He added leaders understood what difficulties each G-20 country faced in contributing to overall growth. “There is no single approach everybody takes. They are all saying consistent with your internal issues, you contribute to world growth.”

 

“The message coming out of the summit was growth is something we couldn’t give up. Unless growth takes place, a number of other issues would come to the fore, and these would not be good for the macro economies of various countries,” Gopalan said.

“Look at those countries that have issues relating to problems in the banking system, owing to sovereign debts. If debt and fiscal deficit keep mounting, these would adversely impact the global financial system. Stability of the financial system is important for growth to take place,” he said.

He added austerity couldn’t be looked at as an issue in itself; it had to be linked to the context of rising debts in Euro zone countries. “I believe the emphasis of this summit is tilted, to a great extent, towards growth,” he said.