Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, has said the London Summit had the potential to restore confidence to the markets and to people. The leadership of the G20 that will assemble represent a very high proportion of the wealth of the world, its population and its trade. 'It is in their capacity to take the important decisions to solve the immediate challenges of the banking system and get the banks back to lending that will be central for the recovery.'

In an interview with this website, Mr Gurría said his organisation had been able to make significant contributions to the preparations for the London Summit – in particular the issue of transparency on exchange of tax information. 'There's been more progress in the last two weeks than in the last 12-13 years,' he said. 'The reason why we've made progress is because there is going to be a G20… We have helped to catalyse this process, but we wouldn't have been able to make so much progress without the meeting itself.'

The OECD Secretary-General said he was confident that there would be a consensus at the London Summit over the need to maintain free trade and not return to the protectionism that deepened the depression in the 1930s. 'There has been a lot more talk about protectionism – at least in the field of investment – than there has been action. But let’s keep our guard up.’

Mr Gurría said there were limits to what the Summit could achieve in a single day with a single meeting, in tackling the greatest crisis in the lifetime of most people. But he believed the most important achievement would be to give very clear signals on the items on the agenda.

'The signals, the meeting itself and the fact that they give a very clear indication that they are going to continue to work together, with greater coordination like there was to save the financial system among the central banks, that there's going to be also coordination over stimulus packages and the recovery process will give confidence and confidence is what this game is about.'