IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has claimed that that global recession still has not ended despite the recent signs of a recovery, and that global issues required global solutions.
Speaking in the Norwegian capital Oslo, Strauss-Kahn noted that the economic crisis had appeared to have turned a corner but added that increased membership of the G20 group would have significant benefit if the world’s leading economies would be willing to open their ranks.
“Over the past year or so, the global financial crisis has been the subject of intense debate. But today, instead of dwelling on the economic risks, I would like to turn instead to another important topic—the relationship between economic stability and peace.
“It is my abiding belief that they are intimately entwined. If you lose one, you are likely to lose the other. Peace is a necessary precondition for trade, sustained economic growth, and prosperity. In turn, economic stability, and a rising prosperity that is broadly shared—both within and among countries—can foster peace. This is most likely to happen in an atmosphere of economic cooperation, of openness, of a multilateral approach to economic and political problems,” claimed the head of the International Monetary Fund in his speech notes which were reported in The Norway News.
While Strauss-Kahn did not refer to any specific countries that should warrant inclusion into the Group of 20, he did point out that neither Scandinavia nor Africa currently holds seats within the group which has limited the global reach of the organisation.
The IMF chief also said that: “Ultimately, peace and prosperity feed on each other. I believe history teaches us this lesson. We all remember how the Great Depression created fertile ground for a devastating war. More recently, in many parts of the world, economic instability provoked political upheaval, social unrest, and conflict”.