The group of industrial powers and emerging markets known as the G-20 _ whose finance ministers meet in Scotland this week _ is key to the world's recovery from recession and to sustained growth afterward, a top U.S. Treasury official said Wednesday.
In a speech at a Johannesburg business school, Treasury Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin said the recovery the world has seen so far would not have been possible "without swift international action," and that the G-20 was the primary forum for coordinating that action.
"The shift toward the G-20 reflects the critical importance of emerging economies like South Africa, India, Brazil and others," Wolin said. "To be credible _ and to be effective _ global economic coordination in the 21st century must take place in a broad and inclusive forum."
Wrapping up an African tour that took him earlier to Rwanda and Tanzania, Wolin also repeated commitments made by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to help develop economies on this continent. Obama and Clinton visited Africa earlier this year.
"It's not only what happens in London and Beijing, but also what happens here that matters to us," he told reporters after his speech.
Wolin said tighter regulation was needed, both in the United States and abroad.
"Right at the core of what happened in our country was a failure of consumer protection," he said, emphasizing the need for rules and oversight to ensure consumers don't take on loans they can neither understand nor afford.
He said South Africa had much to offer the international debate on regulation.
"Your banks are solvent and have been well managed, with little exposure to toxic assets," he said.
Wolin said the meeting of his boss and other finance ministers that opens Friday in St. Andrews, Scotland would take up from where G-20 heads of state left off in September in Pittsburgh, when they agreed to subject their economic policies to peer review to try to avoid repeating the problems that led to the global meltdown.
Wolin said one focus in Scotland would be on the role of the International Monetary Fund, which is to review countries' economic data. He said that emerging economies influence the running of international financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank, and their importance should be noted.
The U.S. economy grew 3.5 percent in the July-September quarter, and new and surprisingly strong figures on manufacturing, construction and contracts to buy homes raised hopes in the United States and abroad.
Wolin said that while there are signs of progress, the U.S. would not consider the recession over until every American that wanted a job was working. The unemployment rate is at a 26-year high of 9.8 percent.
He said past global growth models had relied too heavily on U.S. consumer spending, while other countries were too dependent on exports.
