AlHijjah 28, 1435, October 22, 2014, SPA -- Countries at an Asia-Pacific summit in Beijing pledged to pursue "flexible" fiscal policies to support the world economy and job creation, their finance ministers said in a joint statement on Wednesday, according to Reuters. Noting that current tepid global economic growth was not creating enough jobs around the world, the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) bloc said they would advance structural reforms to unleash new sources of growth. "As the global economy still faces persistent weakness in demand, growth is uneven and remain below the pace necessary to generate needed jobs and downside risks have risen," the statement said. "We will continue to implement our fiscal policies flexibly, taking into account near-term economic conditions, so as to support economic growth and job creation, while ensuring fiscal sustainability," it said. APEC, which includes the United States, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Canada, groups countries which account for 40 percent of the world's population, 54 percent of its economic output and 44 percent of trade. U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin said in a separate statement that economic recovery in the United States had continued to strengthen and it was important for economies with the "space to do so" to take policy steps to boost demand.
