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Momentum grows for global finance overhaul
AFP - Saturday, November 8
WASHINGTON (AFP) - - US president-elect Barack Obama vowed Friday to tackle the financial crisis head-on when he takes office, as momentum elsewhere in the world grew for overhauling the world financial system.
Stock markets were higher in Europe and the United States despite a stream of gloomy reports from across the world, with London closing 2.69 higher and the Dow index on Wall Street leaping 2.85 percent.
"We are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime. We will have to act swiftly to resolve it," Obama said after meeting his team of 17 heavy-hitting economic advisors.
He also backed more government support for the ailing auto-making sector after the biggest US group, General Motors, warned Friday that it would run out of cash. He also threw his weight behind a stimulus package for the US economy.
Elsewhere Friday, the US Labor Department reported the jobless rate rose to 6.5 percent in October as the world's largest economy shed 240,000 jobs during the month.
"(Job) losses should remain heavy for several more months," said economist Stephen Gallagher at investment bank Societe Generale in New York.
Sobering news resounded in Europe as well, where German insurance giant Allianz late Friday announced a net loss of two billion euros (2.56 billion dollars) in the third quarter of 2008 against a profit of 1.9 billion euros (2.43 billion dollars) in the same period last year, admitting it was affected by the world financial crisis.
EU leaders meanwhile met in Brussels to hammer out a common approach at next week's emergency summit of Group of 20 world leaders in Washington where a global response to the financial crisis is to be discussed.
The summit on November 15 should mark only the beginning of a global revamp of the financial order, EU leaders agreed, calling for a second meeting early next year.
The 27-nation bloc, under its current French presidency, has led calls for a broad overhaul of the global financial architecture, prescribing a stiff dose of tougher regulation to fix the system's ills.
"The decisions that we will take in the next few months will reshape our world for a decade and more," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told journalists. "This is not a time for business as usual."
But in an interview published Saturday in London, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that expectations of a new Bretton Woods system ahead of the G20 summit were overhyped.
"Things are not going to change overnight. Bretton Woods took two years to prepare," IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told the Financial Times.
"A lot of people are talking about Bretton Woods II. The words sound nice but we are not going to create a new international treaty," he said.
In Sao Paulo ahead of a weekend meeting of finance minister of the G20 rich and emerging countries, Brazilian Economy Minister Guido Mantega said the world's top emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- want "a reorganization of the world financial system."
The Group of Seven most advanced economies is no longer sufficient to address global crises such as the one rippling around the world, and the G20 should be strengthened to supersede it, Mantega said.
In Asia, South Korea became the latest leading economy to slash its interest rate in a bid to cushion the impact of the downturn after similar moves by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England on Thursday.
British Airways blamed "incredibly difficult trading conditions" as it announced a 92 percent plunge in half-year profits.
The mounting woes made clear the challenge awaiting Obama and highlight the heavy responsibilities to be carried by his Treasury secretary, whom he has yet to name.
The world economy was also one of the main topics of conversation in a series of phone calls between Obama and leaders of Washington's closest allies.
The White House pledged close cooperation with Obama's economic advisers in order to avoid sending "confusing signals" to international markets but said it did not expect him to have a seat at the table at the summit in Washington next weekend.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average leapt 2.85 percent, while the Nasdaq gained 2.41 percent.
European stock markets closed sharply higher, with London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares gaining 2.69 percent. In Paris, the CAC 40 index rose 2.42 percent and in Frankfurt the DAX put on 2.59 percent.
In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei stock index closed down 3.55 percent after dropping as much as seven percent at one point following a profit warning from Toyota.
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