Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond greets Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in central London
Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond (L) greets Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in central London August 12, 2014. Reuters

The G20 Finance Ministers in Australia's Cairns announced that they are on track to grow the world's economy by 2 per cent by 2018. This growth target was the pivot of the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers, reported BBC.

Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey hailed the meeting as a success. The US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew urged the eurozone countries to "boost demand" and reduce unemployment and deflation. He was speaking at a meeting of the G20 group, covering some of the largest economies in the world.

Recently, the European Central Bank (ECB) had a introduced a set of measures to stimulate the bloc's sagging economy. In that process, the ECB spurned the policies followed by US Federal Reserve and launched an asset purchase programme to buy the debt products from banks. The ECB also cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.05 per cent. The ECB has been under heavy pressure to revive the eurozone economy where manufacturing output slowed and inflation fell to just 0.3 per cent.

US Experience

Lew told reporters that the US experience had showed that a combination of actions was needed to boost demand including structural changes for the long term. At the conclusion of the Cairns meeting on Sunday, Australian Treasurer Hockey announced that member countries have identified the measures need to achieve 1.8 per cent and more growth, in the next two years. There is a consensus to work on 900 policy initiatives to make to economy more than 2 trillion dollars larger in the next four years. This will create millions of new jobs. The proposals have already got the seal of International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

Putin Coming

Meanwhile, the G20 has decided to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin for the G20 summit of world leaders in Australia in November, reported the Wall Street Journal. Australia holds the G20 presidency now and said it received an "emphatic" approval from the member countries to invite Russia. Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey made clear the invite to Russia was not Australia's decision, but a collective decision taken by all the members of the G20.