Leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) countries on Friday ruled out short-term exit strategies, and agreed to maintain their measures to support economic activity until recovery is fully assured.

The growth of the global economy and the success of various countries' coordinated effort to respond to the recent crisis have increased the case for more sustained and systematic international cooperation, said a Leaders' Statement issued after the conclusion of the two-day third G20 summit in Pittsburgh, the US state of Pennsylvania.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that world economic growth will resume this year after the most severe global financial crisis in decades.

Most of the world's advanced and emerging market economies have adopted stimulus measures to counter the impact of the sweeping financial and economic crisis, according to an analysis by the IMF, which estimates the collective impact on growth to be around a quarter to a half of one point.

However, people around the world were anxiously awaiting a coordinated G20 exit strategy as they thought the global economy would lose its steam without stimulus measures.

"In the short-run, we must continue to implement our stimulus programs to support economic activity until recovery clearly has taken hold," said the Leaders' Statement.

Leaders from the G20 countries, which represent 85 percent of the world economy, also agreed to develop a transparent and credible process for withdrawing their extraordinary fiscal, monetary and financial sector support when time is ripe for an exit strategy.

"We task our Finance Ministers, working with input from the IMF and FSB (Financial Stability Board), at their November meeting to continue developing cooperative and coordinated exit strategies recognizing that the scale, timing and sequencing of this process will vary across countries or regions and across the type of policy measures," said the statement.

"Credible exit strategies should be designed and communicated clearly to anchor expectations and reinforce confidence," it added.

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2009)