NEW YORK
Countries need to pursue a wide array of structural reforms to attain sustainable growth, Turkey's deputy prime minister said Monday.
Ali Babacan's remarks came during a keynote address at the UN Economic and Social Council meeting on financing sustainable developments.
Seven years since the financial crisis of 2008, challenges to the world's economic outlook continue to persist despite positive developments, said Babacan, pointing to recent volatility in exchange rates as among the most prominent of these challenges.
"Governments should swiftly implement the structural reforms benefiting from accommodative policy environments," he said.
The reforms are need to address a number of issues, including labor market, products, social security, investment environment and human capital accumulation, he said, adding that the role of central banks is only to open opportunity windows for governments to pursue reform.
"These are going to be at the essence of global economic recovery. Monetary policies or fiscal policies alone will not help sustainable growth to be attained," said Babacan, who also is at the helm of Turkey’s economy.
Considered by many economists as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the economic downturn of 2008 created a domino effect that toppled many of the world’s major economies and led to a global recession.
Regarding Turkey's G20 presidency for 2015, Babacan said its priorities were inclusiveness, implementation and investment for growth.
"At the international level, we are trying to ensure that challenges facing low-income development countries are raised more vocally by the G20," he said.
The tenth annual meeting of the G20 heads of government will be held in the southern Turkish touristic resort city of Antalya in November.
