Geithner Calls For Multilateral Focus On Economic Recovery

By AJ Swartwood

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called upon nations Wednesday to continue to working together to sustain the tenuous global economy as it moves toward recovery. 

In a speech at the Brookings Institution, Geithner hailed the progress the world’s nations have made in collaborating on economic issues calling it “the most productive era of cooperation we have seen in peacetime.” Geithner urged continued efforts to keep the focus on unified, multilateral approaches to solving financial issues.

“The greatest challenge to the global economy today is that the largest economies under-achieve on growth,” he said, mentioning that that projected economic growth of the world in 2011 is projected at around 4%, with the large, developed economies lagging behind. 

Geithner addressed the issue of currency devaluation, with a particular focus on China, and called for an end to the increasingly common practice amongst growing economic powers of reducing currency value.

Although the House of Representatives recently passed legislation that would restrict China’s ability to keep their currency undervalued, concerns still remain, and Geithner acknowledged a need for more multilateral measures to solve the problem.

“China will be less likely to move, to allow its currency to appreciate more rapidly if it’s not confident that other countries will move with it.”

Geithner’s message of multilateralism was appropriate as the world’s financial leaders, the I.M.F. and World Bank are set to begin their annual meetings this weekend.