TORONTO — Wary of slamming on the stimulus brakes too quickly, but shaken by the European debt crisis, world leaders pledged yesterday to halve government deficits in the most industrialized nations by 2013, with wiggle room to meet the goal.
As protester arrests topped 600, leaders of 20 major industrial and developing nations generally backed spending cuts and tax hikes, despite warnings from President Obama about choking off recovery.
“Serious challenges remain,” they cautioned in a closing statement. “While growth is returning, the recovery is uneven and fragile, unemployment in many countries remains at unacceptable levels, and the social impact of the crisis is still widely felt.”
Summit participants navigated between Obama, with his emphasis on a global stimulus, and leaders such as Germany’s Angela Merkel, who advocated spending cuts and tax increases.
“We can’t all rush to the exits at the same time,” Obama said.
He also issued a warning to North Korea, saying its sinking of a South Korean warship was “belligerent behavior that is unacceptable” to the international community, and emphasized the importance of China following through on its pledge to introduce more flexibility in how it manages the yuan.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for a global tax on oil companies to help pay for cleanup projects, such as the BP oil disaster.
Meanwhile, police raided a university campus and rounded up protesters to quell further violence after youths rampaged through the city the night before.