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Sydney – G20 host Australia is leading a push to draw a line under the global financial crisis, urging the group of top economies to swiftly finalise regulations aimed at preventing a repeat of the crash and focus on measures to revive sputtering global growth.
But the efforts of the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers, meeting this weekend in the tropical tourist town of Cairns, risk being drowned out by growing alarm over geopolitical tensions and increased market volatility.

“They will do so against a backdrop of downgraded Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) growth forecasts and a deteriorating global political climate,” said London-based Lena Komileva, chief economist at G+ Economics. Indeed, headlines from the G20 will vie with any fallout from Scotland’s independence vote and ongoing US interest rate speculation that  has driven the dollar to six-year highs against the yen.

At home, a sweeping counter-terrorism operation across several major Australian cities yesterday has knocked everything else from the front page.

Yet Treasurer Joe Hockey this week said he and his G20 colleagues are focused on delivering jobs and growth more than ever before.

He acknowledged the challenges in attaining the target of bettering the global growth trajectory by 2 percent by 2018, a goal set earlier this year at a similar meeting in Sydney. “Whether we reach the 2 percent or not – the G20 is committed to promoting further growth and to creating more jobs,” said Hockey, perhaps suggesting he had already conceded the target was too ambitious.

Complicating the growth agenda, Western nations recently slapped sanctions on some of Russia’s biggest firms as punishment over Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis. – Fin24.