World finance leaders back EU, US to-do list

To hold each others' feet to the fire, the nations — meeting under the aegis of the International Monetary Fund — agreed to review progress in six months.

Their 10-page agenda, however, largely summarized previously planned steps, such as deploying a new European Central Bank bond-buying program and avoiding the U.S. “fiscal cliff” of spending cuts and tax hikes set to take hold early next year.

The checklist and checkup were an acknowledgement of frustration within the IMF and among many emerging market economies over a sluggish and piecemeal policy response to the major risks facing the world economy.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said nations had narrowed their differences over how to implement policy, seeking to downplay disagreements between the Fund and Germany over how quickly debt-laden countries such as Greece should cut budgets.

“There was no objection to the recommendation that we gave to the membership, which was A-C-T,” Lagarde said, spelling out the word letter by letter.

“We might not always agree on everything, but I think there is a general consensus that collective action is going to produce results,” she told reporters.

“Members all agreed that we are in a better position today than we were six months ago,” said Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the chairman of the committee.

Spain's economy minister, Luis de Guindos, said he felt the mood toward his country lifting too. Spain is under pressure to seek a bailout as it struggles to cope with high government debt and the cost of recapitalizing its banks.

“The atmosphere, from International Monetary Fund policymakers or from the private sector, is much more positive than it was before the summer,” de Guindos said.

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