At this stage the issue really is monitoring and assessing whether the general direction of G 20 member country policies is heading in a mutually consistent and agreed fashion over the medium to long-term, and how the G 20 processes can help countries navigate their domestic legislative, regulatory and judicial processes such that commonly agreed policies are adopted.
In my view, while the operation of automatic stabilisers, whose impact on activity, income distribution and the sustainability of public finances is reasonably well understood and comparatively easy to predict, discretionary changes – particularly if they are temporary – have mostly a short-living effect on demand. The carscrapping schemes implemented in several countries are a good example.