China Renews Calls for Western Governments to Cut Deficits

Posted September 14th, 2011 at 11:25 am (UTC-5)
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Premier Wen Jiabao says China will continue to expand investment in eurozone countries, but says Western economies saddled with crippling debt should cut deficits rather than rely solely on his country to ease the global crisis.

Mr. Wen spoke Wednesday at a global economic forum in China. In his keynote address, he called on governments to make effective fiscal and monetary decisions.

In return, the premier said China will do its part to ease the global crisis by maintaining economic stability and boosting domestic consumption.

China is the largest foreign creditor of the United States, and is offering new investments to help stabilize Europe.

With more than $3 trillion in foreign currency reserves, Beijing has already committed to investing in Greece, Spain and Portugal — western Europe’s three most indebted economies.

The Swiss-based World Economic Forum has brought world leaders and top business executives to China every summer since 2007. This year’s conference comes as weakening demand in the United States and Europe prompted the Asian Development Bank on Wednesday to lower its growth forecast for Asia to 7.5 percent from 7.8 percent.