G-20 summit: Talk of 'secular stagnation' emerges amid a weakened global economy

Tokyo

CHINA was determined that this week's meeting of political heads from the Group of Twenty advanced and emerging economies (G-20) in Hangzhou - the first such gathering that China has hosted - should be seen as a success, and other leaders played along with its wishes by declaring a "Hangzhou Consensus" on policy measures.

They were "very diplomatic", as Japan's former vice-finance minister for international affairs Eisuke Sakakibara put it to The Business Times on Tuesday. But their consensus could not cover up the fact that "this is a critical moment for the world economy", Mr Sakakibara said.

"The global economy as a whole has weakened and (former US Treasury secretary and Harvard economics professor) Larry Summers has called it 'secular stagnation'…