World leaders hammered out an agreement including a $1trillion rescue package for the global economy and tougher regulation of financial dealings.The Prime Minister hailed it as 'a new world order' and compared it to the Marshall Plan, which rebuilt shattered Europe after the Second World War. He said it could lift the world out of recession by next year.
U.S. President Barack Obama called the deal 'by any measure historic' and said of the world economy: 'The patient has stabilised.'
Stock markets gave the plan a positive reaction, with the FTSE-100 Index climbing more than 4 per cent to top 4,000 for the first time in five weeks. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 216.48, or 2.8 per cent, to close at 7,978.08, posting its best four weeks since 1933.
Overnight Asian markets also climbed with Japan's Nikkei up 1.3 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.5 percent. Stocks in Australia and Taiwan also gained over 1 per cent.
But critics queried how much of the announcement involved new money and just what it could achieve both across the world and for suffering families and businesses in the UK. (Source: Daily Mail)
