G8 Ministers Look Toward Recovery

LECCE, Italy -- The Group of Eight industrialized nations began looking ahead to economic recovery on Saturday, as they considered how to unwind their massive stimulus policies while also warning it was too early to celebrate the end of the global crisis.

Acknowledging "signs of stabilization in our economies," G8 finance ministers tasked the International Monetary Fund with studying how best to roll back measures introduced to help the global economy once the crisis could be considered over.

But the ministers said it was still too early to shift strategies, as many economies were still stabilizing from the financial and economic turmoil, whose full impact was yet to be felt in some corners of the world.

They backed away from proposals by some countries to give the IMF until the end of the year to complete its investigation, suggesting the group agreed to a compromise. The U.S. and Britain are worried that continental Europe has not done enough to deal with the recession, while more cautious countries like Germany fret about the potential long-term risks posed by the stimulus measures.

The finance ministers' meeting -- meant to set the agenda for a gathering of G-8 heads of state next month in L'Aquila, in central Italy -- was held as several months of improving economic data fueled a rally on world stock markets.

"These early signs of improvement are encouraging, but the global economy is still operating well below potential and we still face acute challenges," U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told reporters after the meeting, emphasizing it was too early to shift policy.

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