Global economic recovery still fragile: Manmohan Singh

As he left for the G-20 Summit in Toronto, prime minister Manmohan Singh today cautioned that the global economic recovery is "still fragile and uneven" and asked world leaders to calibrate exit strategies in the light of growing concerns over expansionary fiscal policies.

"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 departure statement here.

Singh will be attending the two-day Summit from tomorrow
during which he will also have talks with US president Barack
Obama and other leaders.

The challenges before the Toronto Summit were three-fold, he said. These 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. 

"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.

On the margins of the Summit, Singh would hold separate
meetings with Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British
prime minister David Cameron and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

He would hold bilateral talks with Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper when the two sides are expected to sign a deal
providing for cooperation in the field of civil nuclear energy, paving the way for supply of uranium and cooperation in research, development, waste management and radiation safety.

Singh's delegation includes deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, his sherpa in the
summit, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, finance
secretary Ashok Chawla and other officials.