The expectations game
G20 leaders always try to beat expectations when they produce their final communiqué - and the expectations for today's final agreement have been set very low indeed. In the early hours of last night negotiatiors here made just enough progress on the vexed subject of exchange rates and global imbalances for all sides to declare victory.
The US can say they got some numbers attached to the language about limiting imbalances - but those numbers are dates. The question of whether countries will ever be - even nominally - committed to particular current account targets has been kicked down the road, for the finance ministers to sort out (or fudge) next year.
The US President has had a tougher ride here than at any previous G20 Summit. The final agreement also sets a new tone on international development policy - with Asian members of the group pushing back against the traditional, Western approach to foreign aid and growth.
After days of complaint about the US and its cheap dollar policy, Eurozone leaders might take comfort from the fact that the dollar has been rising in recent days - and the Euro has been going down.
But they will not welcome the cause: growing concern about the safety of Irish and Portugese government debt. Once again, at this Summit, the leaders find themselves working to prevent the next crisis -while the aftershocks of the last one are still being felt.
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