Lima - Peruvian President Alan Garcia on Friday defined the
financial and economic crisis that is currently affecting the world
as both a 'painful childbirth' and 'growing pains,' rather than an
outright illness affecting global capitalism.
'This is a wealth crisis and a system expansion crisis and it
should not be treated with statism or protectionism,' Garcia said in
Lima, as he opened the CEO summit that precedes this weekend's APEC
Leaders' Meeting.
'I claim that the world is not sick but is rather suffering from
growing pains,' he said.
Garcia, a staunch advocate of free trade, insisted that trade
liberalization is the best possible way forward even at a time of
crisis.
He admitted that the world is undergoing 'a situation of
uncertainty, doubts and even confusion.'
'The explosion of the financial and real estate crisis that now
threatens to move onto the real and material sector of the economy is
forcing governments into rushed meetings and economic officials into
thinking up initiatives to face the situation,' he said.
Still, he warned the world away from overregulation and looked
back on the growth of recent years.
'We have lived the first year-long chapters of a revolution that
should last longer. The emergence of an extraordinary market in the
world, different from the passive and liable market of the 1930s,' he
said.
Garcia underlined Peru's growth - of 10.08 per cent in the first
nine months of 2008 - and said the country would like 'to be a haven
for the capital that escapes other countries in fear.'
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