World leaders at the G20 summit in London on 2 April defied critics by pledging more than US$1 trillion in loans and guarantees for "impoverished countries", and agreeing to crack down on tax havens and hedge funds.

The move will mean that the G20 nations could have spent US$5 trillion on trying to ease the financial crisis by the end of 2010.

The amount of decisions surprised some who predicted that it would be impossible to get all parties to agree to any significant measures, however, not all the proposals were ratified as despite pressure from the US and UK the G20 did not commit to further stimulus spending to try and arrest the global economic decline.

The main points agreed by the G20 were:

• An extra US$1 trillion in loans and guarantees for international bodies,
• A trebling of International Monetary Fund financing to US$750bn (US$40bn of which is to come from China, with the European Union and Japan contributing US$100bn each), which will be used to sell billions of dollars from gold reserves to help poor countries
• The creation of a new global supervisory body to flag potential problems in the financial system
• A pledge of US$250bn in trade finance over the next two years designed to prevent protectionism.
• A new "name-and-shame" list of countries that serve as tax havens


• New rules on pay and bonuses for corporate chiefs

Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, said the US$1.1 trillion deal to boost funds for the International Monetary Fund and other global institutions was "unprecedented".
He said: "For the first time we have a common approach to cleaning up banks around the world, to restructuring the world financial system. We have maintained our commitment to help the world's poorest. This is a collective action of people around the world working at their best."

The impact of these announcements pleased the markets, with the FTSE 100 closing up 4.28% at 4,124.97, and Hong Kong, the Hang Seng rocketed to 1,002.43 points, or 7.41%, to 14,521.97 - its best day for four months.