WASHINGTON (AP) – Facing a shaky world economy and political attacks on free trade, global finance leaders meeting in Washington are searching for ways to increase cooperation to battle a variety of economic threats.
The International Monetary Fund is urging countries to launch a new round of public works projects to improve roads and other types of infrastructure in hopes the higher government spending will boost growth. But in an era of high budget deficits, that call has not met with much support.
The discussions are being held as part of the spring meetings of the 189-nation IMF and its sister lending organization, the World Bank. Leaders of both institutions are sounding the alarm about the need for greater efforts to boost growth to make sure the world economy does not topple back into recession.
The Group of 20, representing the world’s biggest economies, is wrapping up two-days of talks on Friday with Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen representing the United States. Those talks will be followed by meetings Saturday of the policy-setting panels of the IMF and World Bank.
Lew met on Thursday with his counterparts from China and Japan.