G20 leaders push for lifting of global growth

Antalya (Turkey): Endorsing India's stand, the G20 leaders on Monday pushed for a collective plan to lift global growth, create employment and promote development to eradicate poverty and to ensure equitable, sustained and balanced growth.

"We remain resolute to continue our collective action to lift actual and potential growth of our economies, support job creation, strengthen resilience, promote development and enhance inclusiveness of our policies," the leaders stated in a joint communique issued at the end of the G20 Summit at this Mediterranean resort city.

The leaders stated that a comprehensive agenda has been adopted this year "around the three pillars of decisive implementation of our past commitments to deliver on our promises, boosting investments as a powerful driver of growth and promoting inclusiveness in our actions so that the benefits of growth are shared by all".

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concern over a slowdown in global trade at on a day when official data showed India's merchandise trade had declined for the 11th straight month in October.

"Prospects for increase in trade momentum remain bleak in the prevailing global economic environment. Efforts to accelerate global economic growth will help trade," the prime minister said in his intervention during the working luncheon session at the G20 Summit on the topic "trade and energy".

"Slowdown in global trade is a major concern," he said.

In the joint communique, the leaders over the uneven global growth despite the positive outlook in some major economies.

"We will continue to implement sound macroeconomic policies in a cooperative manner to achieve strong, sustainable and balanced growth. Our monetary authorities will continue to ensure price stability and support economic activity, consistent with their mandates," the communique stated.

"We remain committed to achieving our ambition to lift collective G20 GDP by an additional 2 percent by 2018 as announced in Brisbane last year," it added.

The leaders also said that strengthening the resilience of financial institutions and enhancing stability of the financial system were crucial to sustaining growth and development.

"To enhance the resilience of the global financial system, we have completed further core elements of the financial reform agenda. In particular, as a key step towards ending too-big-to-fail, we have finalised the common international standard on total-loss-absorbing-capacity (TLAC) for global systemically important banks," the statement said.

Stating that the issue of climate change was one of the greatest challenges in these times the leaders stated that 2015 was a critical year that required effective, strong and collective action on climate change and its effects.

"We reaffirm the below 20C goal as stated in the Lima Call for Action. We affirm our determination to adopt a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) that is applicable to all parties," the communique read.

According to the leaders, the scale of the ongoing refugee crisis was a global concern with major humanitarian, political, social and economic consequences.

"We commit to continue further strengthening our support for all efforts to provide protection and assistance and to find durable solutions for the unprecedented numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons in various parts of the world. We call upon all states to contribute to responding to this crisis, and share in the burdens associated with it, including through refugee resettlement, other forms of humanitarian admission, humanitarian aid and efforts to ensure that refugees can access services, education and livelihood opportunities," the communique read.

As on Sunday, on Monday too Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a number of bilateral meetings at the sidelines of the summit.

He first met Turkish President and host of this year's G20 Summit Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which was followed by meetings with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, and South Korean President Park Gyun-hye.