G7 leaders debate global risk

ISE-SHIMA, Japan: Group of Seven leaders voiced concern about emerging economies at a summit in Japan on Thursday as their host, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, made a pointed comparison to the 2008 global financial crisis but not all his G7 partners appeared to agree.

The G7 leaders did agree on the need for flexible spending to spur world growth but the timing and amount depended on each country, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko told reporters, adding some countries saw no need for such spending.

Britain and Germany have been resisting calls for fiscal stimulus.

"G7 leaders voiced the view that emerging economies are in a severe situation, although there were views that the current economic situation is not a crisis," Seko said after the first day of a two-day G7 summit in Ise-Shima, central Japan.

Abe presented data showing global commodities prices fell 55 percent from June 2014 to January 2016, the same margin as from July 2008 to February 2009, after the Lehman collapse.

Lehman had been Wall Street´s fourth-largest investment bank when it filed for Chapter 11 protection on Sept.

15, 2008, making its bankruptcy by far the biggest in U.S. history.

Its failure triggered the global financial crisis.

Abe hopes, some political insiders say, to use a G7 statement on the global economy as cover for a domestic fiscal package including the possible delay of a rise in the nation´s sales tax to 10 percent from 8 percent planned for next April.

Obama told a news conference that he stressed the importance of pushing back against competitive currency devaluations, which some countries might be tempted to use to boost exports.

Other summit topics include terrorism, cyber security and maritime security, especially China´s increasing assertiveness in the East and South China Seas, where Beijing has territorial disputes with Japan and several Southeast Asian nations.

G7 leaders agreed that it was important to send a clear signal on the South and East China Seas, Seko told reporters, adding China was mentioned in discussions on maritime matters on Thursday.