World leaders balked at writing new checks to help bail out the euro-area, demanding its own governments first do more to fix the two-year-old debt crisis.
Global policy makers are awaiting more details of a week-old rescue package before they commit fresh cash to the International Monetary Fund which could then lend to Europe’s bailout facility, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the end of a Group of 20 summit in Cannes, France.
“The worst thing to do would be to try and cook up a number without being clear who was agreeing to what,” British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters. “The job of the IMF is to help countries in distress, not to support currency systems.”
The refusal of major economies to pump in money now reflected irritation with Europe’s failure to resolve its crisis alone and foiled investor hopes that the summit would mark a turning point.
President Barack Obama said leaders of the G-20 nations have made “important progress” toward putting the global economic recovery on firmer footing even as growth in the US remains too slow.
“The world faces challenges that put our economic recovery at risk,” Obama said.
Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou narrowly survived a vote of confidence last night and vowed to start talks with all parties for the formation of a coalition government that will ratify a bailout package by Greece’s creditors.