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3/04/2009

World leaders yesterday clinched a US$ 1.1 trillion deal to combat a worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and tightened rules to stop it happening again, says Business Day.

27/03/2009

The human cost of the financial crisis. An Op-ed by Douglas Alexander in the Mail & Guardian.

Beeld says in its headline: 'West, your promises in 2005 are still owing'. A group of African leaders will put forward their own demands at the G20 summit next week after the promises made at the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles, it says.

26/03/2009

Let the voices of the poor be heard. Afrikaans op-ed by acting High Commissioner Judith Slater on development and the G20 Summit in Die Burger.

25/03/2009

Business Day reports that top executives from 13 major African, Asian, European and US banks had urged Gordon Brown not to push for short-term regulatory measures that could damage economic recovery at the G20 meeting.

The Citizen says Gordon Brown has started a diplomatic offensive to win support for his plans to reverse the recession, while Obama urged fellow world leaders to agree on swift action at the G20 summit to spur on global recovery.

20/03/2009

Protectionist import tariffs could 'devastate'trade,WTO counsellor Edwini Kessie tells Business Day He expects a strong message for a returnto the negotiation table for a new global trade deal from the G-20.

Headinginto the G20 summit, to be held in London on April 2, South Africa isproposing a four-track plan to deal with the current global economiccrisis, says Engineering News.Speaking at the Institute for Global Dialogue, Michael Sachs, NationalTreasury chief director of international financial relations, said thefinancial crisis had its origins in the developed world, and that itwas, therefore, up to the developed countries to take the primaryaction to resolve the crisis.

19/03/2009

According to a feature in Financial Mail the world islooking for a 'miracle' to turn the global economy around, but isunlikely to find it in the 'ruminations of the G-20 industrial anddeveloping countries'.

17/03/2009

In The Times Raenette Taljaard of the University of the Witwatersrand looks at the forthcoming meeting of G20 finance ministers in southern England and the expectations of the G20 summit on 2 April including climate change, reforms in global financial systems and stimulus packages.

16/03/2009

Speaking from London, Finance Minister TrevorManuel said it was too early to assess whether measures taken to revivethe global financial system would be sufficient, according to Business Day. He was in London for a meeting for finance ministers and central bank governors ahead of the G-20 summit.

In an editorial Business Day - focusing on recent statement by US President Barack Obama – argued in support of concerted fiscal stimulus by members of G20

13/03/2009

Speaking on Talk Radio 702 ahead of the G20 Finance Ministers' meeting in the UK, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel welcomed the 'strong signal' given by US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner when he called for a coordinated fiscal stimulus of around 2% of GDP. Coordinated multilateral action was essential to get out of the crisis, and to avoid national responses that encourage protectionism.

11/03/2009

Business Day quotes South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel as saying that Africa might lack the financial resources to get the support it needs to withstand the global downturn, and that the threat of political risk on the continent was rising. He said attempts to address the global crisis risk being unsuccessful as there was a failure to acknowledge it stemmed from a ‘fatally flawed’ model of capitalism.

04/03/2009

President Kgalema Motlanthe says the global financial crisis and subsequent job losses could have been avoided if the US and Britain had exercised more control over banks in their countries, accord to the Sowetan.

22/02/2009

City Press Business reported that officials at the Department of Trade and Industry have concluded that the 'Buy American' clause - part of the $787bn US stimulus package - posed no major threats to the preferential market access to the US economy that Africa has enjoyed under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa).

09/02/2009

Developing countries, hoping to compensate for slumping demand in rich countries and falling commodity prices, are looking at ways to bolster trade among one another instead South-South trade.

02/02/2009

Leaders of the G20 countries must move quickly to develop a coordinated policy response to the most serious global recession since the 1930s, Maria Ramos, South African businesswoman and co-chair of the World Economic Forum's (WEF's) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, told delegates.