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PM Lee: This is worse than 2008 meltdown
http://www.straitstimes.com/print/The-Big-Story/The-Big-Story-2/Story/STIStory_730422.html
By Rachel Chang
CANNES - As an escalating debt crisis in Greece hung over the first day of the Group of 20 (G-20) nations summit in France, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told G-20 leaders on Thursday that the European situation is a 'serious and volatile' one and on a bigger scale than the 2008 financial meltdown in the United States.
Speaking at the first working session of the Cannes summit over lunch, Mr Lee said that the risk of 'sudden and unpredictable' global contagion from the troubles in Europe is also higher.
Despite robust fundamentals and continued growth, Asian economies are already seeing the pullback of capital and the slowing of their exports to the West, he said.
He noted that political decision-making in the European Union - made up of 27 countries, of which 17 share a common currency - is more complex, and issued a call to the G-20 to show 'political leadership which is critical to solving economic problems'.
'Help people understand that we are in for a difficult period... and build political support for measures that involve some sacrifice today, but which will make things better eventually,' he urged.
Singapore is at the meeting of the world's leading economies for the second time as one of five invited guest countries, and Mr Lee said that he was sharing the thoughts of a 'small nation closely tied to both the advanced and developing world'.
The G-20, made up of 19 countries and the European Union, represents 85 per cent of global gross domestic product.
As world leaders descended on the French Riviera yesterday, political brinkmanship over the debt crisis in Greece threatened to hijack the proceedings.
Greece is not a member of the G-20. But Prime Minister George Papandreou's intention to put a 130 billion euro (S$227 billion) bailout plan to a national referendum kick-started a chain of events that led to European leaders making it clear that they saw the euro as more important than Greece's continued membership of the currency union.
http://www.straitstimes.com/print/The-Big-Story/The-Big-Story-2/Story/STIStory_730422.html
By Rachel Chang
CANNES - As an escalating debt crisis in Greece hung over the first day of the Group of 20 (G-20) nations summit in France, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told G-20 leaders on Thursday that the European situation is a 'serious and volatile' one and on a bigger scale than the 2008 financial meltdown in the United States.
Speaking at the first working session of the Cannes summit over lunch, Mr Lee said that the risk of 'sudden and unpredictable' global contagion from the troubles in Europe is also higher.
Despite robust fundamentals and continued growth, Asian economies are already seeing the pullback of capital and the slowing of their exports to the West, he said.
He noted that political decision-making in the European Union - made up of 27 countries, of which 17 share a common currency - is more complex, and issued a call to the G-20 to show 'political leadership which is critical to solving economic problems'.
'Help people understand that we are in for a difficult period... and build political support for measures that involve some sacrifice today, but which will make things better eventually,' he urged.
Singapore is at the meeting of the world's leading economies for the second time as one of five invited guest countries, and Mr Lee said that he was sharing the thoughts of a 'small nation closely tied to both the advanced and developing world'.
The G-20, made up of 19 countries and the European Union, represents 85 per cent of global gross domestic product.
As world leaders descended on the French Riviera yesterday, political brinkmanship over the debt crisis in Greece threatened to hijack the proceedings.
Greece is not a member of the G-20. But Prime Minister George Papandreou's intention to put a 130 billion euro (S$227 billion) bailout plan to a national referendum kick-started a chain of events that led to European leaders making it clear that they saw the euro as more important than Greece's continued membership of the currency union.
