Australia urges G20 to commit to faster growth targets

Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey said Wednesday it was "hugely important" that G20 leaders agree to faster global growth targets when they meet in Sydney this weekend, AFP reports. Hockey is chairing a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers, and wants not only a commitment for growth targets, but also endorsement for reforms to labour markets, tax rules and infrastructure spending. "It is hugely important for the world that the finance ministers have an aspiration to grow beyond the current IMF (International Monetary Fund) forecasts of around 3.7 to 4 percent growth year on year," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Hockey said that if this was achieved "then we're going to create the jobs that will get global trade going at the level that we need in order to help to increase prosperity and ultimately help us to pay down our deficits and our debt". But the treasurer, who plans bilateral meetings with virtually every finance minister attending to get his message across, would not say what the target should be, although Australian media reports said five percent was the goal. Hockey was determined to ensure the meetings did not descend into a "talkfest", and urged decisive action on reforms to help spur growth. "The message to Australia and the message to the rest of the world is exactly the same: complacency will not deliver growth," he said in a separate interview with The Australian newspaper. "Only substantial domestic reform -- delivering freedom in the marketplace, delivering less regulation, less tax, more transparent markets, greater competition -- only those things will be the drivers of growth." While Hockey wants to keep the talks focused on growth, the capital flows and exchange rate volatility impacting emerging economies since the US central bank's exit from its stimulus package promise to take centre stage. Hockey admitted Janet Yellen, making her international debut as the new US Federal Reserve chief, may not be the most popular person in Sydney. "Well that's right. There'll be a number of countries that'll express that view and the G20 is a hugely important forum for developing nations in particular that are very exposed to tapering to express a view," he told ABC. "My view is that the United States Federal Reserve has to do what is in the best interest of the United States, just as we would expect the Reserve Bank to do the heavy lifting for the Australian economy first."