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TORONTO — Leaders of the G20 nations and organizations arrived in Toronto with divergent agendas. But they ended their two days of discussions with the "spirit of unity" that Chinese President Hu Jintao called for in his address to the G20 summit.
The final document — the G20 Toronto Summit Declaration — leaves room for the economies to maneuver according to the different circumstances of their development to tackle different economic challenges. These include sovereign debt, government budget deficit, lax financial regulations and some advanced economies' concerns over the flexibility of currency exchange rates.
The objective is to "ensure a full return to growth with quality jobs, to reform and strengthen financial systems, and to create strong, sustainable and balanced global growth", reads the declaration that took 45 hours of negotiations before the leaders reached a consensus on Sunday.
The declaration "puts some of the meat on the bones of the framework of strong, sustainable and balanced growth", Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is also the chair of the G20 summit, said at the press conference after the summit closed.
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The advanced economies pledged in the declaration that they would cut their deficits by 50 percent by 2013 and stabilize or reduce the ratios of government debt to GDP by 2016.
Obama said that the US would be able to fulfill its commitment to halve its budget deficit in three years.
"European officials took the G20's commitment to cut deficits as a clear sign that the rest of the world had come around to Europe's point of view," Reuters reported.
"The EU came to Toronto with a clear agenda. The summit's results reflect widespread convergence around Europe's approach," Reuters quoted the European Union officials' statement as saying.
As to stimulus exit, the declaration recognized the different approaches that countries would take according to their needs. It uses the euphemism "growth friendly" fiscal consolidation to try to make sure that no drastic budget cuts hurt economic recovery.
"There is a risk that synchronized fiscal adjustment across several major economies could adversely impact the recovery," the declaration said.