Growth concerns, reform agenda to dominate Shanghai G20 talks

China said it is keeping its reform plans intact and BoE's Mark Carney said central banks still have unused tools.

Growth woes remain the focus point in the G20 meeting begun in Shanghai on Friday as China said it is keeping its reform plans intact while the Bank of England governor Mark Carney said central banks still have unused tools to fight various economic challenges.

Organizations like the International Monetary Fund and OECD have also highlighted the importance to look into measures to boost global growth in the wake of the meeting of central bankers and financial ministers of the G20 bloc.

Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People's bank of China said that while the reform direction was clear, managing the reform pace will need windows of opportunity and conditions.

"The pace will vary, but the reform will be set to continue and the direction is not changed."

The PBoC still has room and tools in its monetary policy to deal with potential downside risks to its economy, Zhou said.

BoE's Carney said the G20 has failed to adopt measures to boost global growth and added that central banks are still powerful to play a role in stimulating economic growth.

"Several commentators are peddling the myth that monetary policy is 'out of ammunition'. This is wrong, but the widespread absence of global price pressures demands that our firepower be well aimed," Carney said.

The OECD wants G20 countries to fulfill a pledge made by leaders in the 2014 Brisbane conference that the group to boost their combined GDP by 2% by 2018.

The IMF asked finance ministers at the Shanghai summit to boost public spending on infrastructure to fuel global growth.

In a statement drafted ahead of the G20 meeting IMF said that the power of monetary policy was beginning to wane and it was incumbent on those governments that could safely increase their spending to act together to boost global growth.

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