Group of Eight leaders have agreed on the need to stay focused on immediate growth goals while tackling public finances “going forward,” a senior US official said on Friday. “There is a broad consensus among the G8 leaders, a convergence of views, if you will, as they head into the G20, about how to maintain durable growth while also reaffirming, of course, the common shared commitments to fiscal consolidation going forward,” the administration official told reporters. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. US President Barack Obama has called on his partners in the broader G20, which includes advanced economies and emerging economic powerhouses like China and India, to keep focused on growth to ensure a self-sustaining recovery. That pits the US against some major countries in Europe, where a debt crisis sparked by Greece has prompted a drive for austerity in public finances that Washington fears is premature.
