G-20 says close to goal of $2 trillion

Finance chiefs from the 20 largest economies said on Sunday they are close to reaching their goal of boosting world GDP by more than $2 trillion over the next five years, and will focus on infrastructure investment to help reach the target. Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey, who hosted the Group of 20 meeting in the northern Australian city of Cairns, said the G-20 finance ministers and central bankers had agreed to more than 900 policy initiatives to meet the goal they set in February during a gathering in Sydney. The G-20, which represents about 85 per cent of the global economy, said an analysis of those initiatives show they should boost the combined gross domestic product of member countries by 1.8 per cent above levels expected for the next five years — just short of the group's target of 2 per cent. In July, the International Monetary Fund downgraded its economic forecast, estimating the world economy would expand 3.4 per cent this year, rather than the 3.7 per cent it had previously predicted, due to weaker growth in the US, Russia and developing economies, according to AP.