G20 finance ministers meet in London

As leading economies including France, Germany and Japan began climbing out of recession, the G20 is seeking ways to sustain this budding recovery until it really takes root. In a bid to reassure jittery financial markets, G20 leaders have said that the government stimulus packages introduced in response to the financial crisis will remain in place until recovery is more certain.  

With unemployment figures on the rise in several key economies including the United States, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast of 1.3 percent global economic contraction for the year and sluggish growth throughout most of 2010, world leaders are remaining cautious.
 
“The biggest risk is to think that the job is done, that recovery is guaranteed,” British Finance Minister Alistair Darling told reporters on Thursday. “No country can be complacent.”

As governments worldwide look to improve bank regulation and accountability, disagreements have arisen over how to effect the neccesary changes. Although heads of state seem united in their outrage over recent high-profile examples of the massive bonuses received by financial executives, the differences run deep.

Several EU nations, led by France and Germany, have spearheaded an initiative to end the "bonus culture" after some struggling companies doled out multimillion-dollar bonuses to top executives after having received government bailout money. European leaders called on Friday for an end to this funnelling of millions of dollars into financiers’ pockets, which undermines responsible – and sustainable – business practices.

“The bonus culture must come to an end, and it must end at the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh,” said a letter from seven European finance ministers published in the London-based Financial Times on Friday. The ministers called disproportionate bonuses “improper, cynical and unacceptable."