Secretary Geithner Statement in Advance of G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting

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Secretary Geithner Statement in Advance of G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting

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March 11, 2009
TG-53

Prepared Statement by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in Advance of G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting

Washington, DC-- This week, the G-20 will meet in London amid a severe global economic downtown and ongoing stress in the world's financial markets. This is a global crisis which calls for a global response. The G-20 Finance Ministers have two agenda items for that global response: how to ensure recovery and restart growth, and how to reform and coordinate the international regulatory and supervisory system to ensure that no such crisis occurs again.

The global recession is deepening. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated that the global economy is likely to contract by 0.5 percent in 2009. Unemployment is rising and world trade is likely to decline by at least 3 percent and probably more in 2009. Last week's jobs report showed that unemployment in the United States rose to 8.1 percent in February. In the fourth quarter of 2008 we saw the biggest quarterly decline in real U.S. exports since 1971. Our economy needs a revival of global growth to complement the stimulus we are injecting at home. U.S. exports, U.S. jobs and the health of the U.S. economy are inextricably linked to the health and stability of the global economy.

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