When the leaders of the Group of 20 nations met last spring, they were united by fear of a vicious world recession. As the G20 finance ministers now meet in London, ahead of a full national leaders’ summit in Pittsburgh later this month, they are finding it harder to agree about how to support a sustainable global recovery.

In the first quarter this year, the Group of Seven major industrialised economies were contracting at an annualised rate of 8.4 per cent. Tremors from the financial sector crisis and the collapse in world trade volumes, which fell by 17 per cent between September and December, were felt across the world.