PARIS – As the Group of 20 most powerful nations began meeting in Moscow Friday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) urged more should be done to follow up on structural reforms undertaken in some of its member countries. The OECD, which provides policy advice and recommendations to the world's 34 most industrialized nations, said that its latest evaluations showed “that the pace of reform has accelerated where it is most needed,” but some of the richest nations “are also shown to have made more limited progress on key reforms.” The OECD report said that hardest-hit European countries with high sovereign debt had put reforms in place. These included Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Other nations like the United States, Norway and Switzerland had been markedly “more limited” in implementing structural reforms. The policy advisory body said in a statement that reforms put in place in Europe and the United States have likely avoided “a worst-case scenario” for the global economy but it called for “bold and concerted” action to “make an upside scenario a real possibility.” The Paris-based OECD, which is participating in the Moscow talks, has been a long proponent of labor and market reforms and a more liberal approach to the economic system. “The good news is that many countries have stepped up their efforts in recent years,” Secretary-General Angel Gurria said. “Active reforms in surplus and deficit countries alike would help achieve a quicker rebalancing of the global world economy, both globally and in the euro area.” The OECD is to present a series of recommendations to the G20 on jobs, and other sectors of the economy and on trade issues. — Agencies
