21st AELM 2013: Constrained Governments and the Rising Need for Market-Driven Growth

Abstract

Aspiring to serve the world as engine of inclusive and sustainable growth is perhaps the most attractive of all the messages and intents that The 21st APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting (21st AELM) in Bali spread through its lengthy Bali Declaration. Given European Union's incapacitation in the wake of austere policies made necessary by structural government deficits and other growth depressors, including aging, sizeable expansionary impulses that can pull the world economy out of descending trend in the short run can only come from APEC economies. Even though the United States (US) and to a lesser extent Japan are tightly constrained and forced sooner or later to cut expenditure amidst a rising social security expenditure, increase taxes and or sell assets in order to get back to a necessary fiscal balance, APEC can count on China, Southeast Asia, Republic of Korea (ROK), and Russia as sources of stimulatory impacts on the world economy.