G20 agrees to continue economic stimulus measures

Finance ministers from the Group of 20 rich and developing countries have pledged to carry on with measures to boost the global economy, despite signs of a fledgling recovery.

Fiscal and monetary policies will stay "expansionary" for as long as needed to stop any reversal in progress, G20 finance ministers said in a joint communiqué issued Saturday after talks in London.

"We all agreed that we can talk about exit strategies and we can start to plan them," said Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

"But we all agreed that this is not the time to even consider implementing any exit strategies because we are all agreed that the recovery, if there is a recovery, is not entrenched and we have to avoid going back into a recession and we have to be concerned about persisting high unemployment," he said.

The finance ministers also looked at ways of trying to curb the behaviour they believe led to the crisis in the first place. They want to rein in the so-called bonus culture of the financial sector.

The ministers agreed to work toward regulations that would see bankers' bonuses tied more to long-term profits than short-term gains, but they stopped short of actually calling for a cap on salaries in the financial sector.

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, said the measures the ministers agreed to should fix at least some of the weaknesses that led to the global crash.

"What I can say to you is I hope we are going to enter an era where we do not have again a situation where people are being rewarded for reckless behaviour, behaviour that could endanger the health of the bank they work for and, therefore, by extension, the health of the countries in which these banks operate," Darling said.

G20 leaders will meet in Pittsburgh later this month.