LONDON (Reuters) – Worries about the fragility of global economic recovery hit financial markets again on Friday, knocking world stocks down for the fourth session in a row ahead of a summit of Group of 20 nations.
Currency traders also sold higher-yielding currencies.
Investors have pulled back a bit from riskier assets this week as evidence built that economic growth, particularly in the United States, may be slowing.
This has combined with fears that the spending cuts and tax rises being promulgated by European governments to cut debt will hurt the recovery.
G8 leaders meeting on Friday in Canada — turning into the G20 on Saturday — are set to grapple with this issue with Washington warning against cutting too far and too fast.
“The cohesion generally evident among policymakers in dealing with the global crisis is in danger of giving way to a more divisive debate about how to manage the recovery,” Credit Agricole analysts said in a morning note to clients.
MSCI’s all-country world index .MIWD00000PUS was down 0.2 percent, heading for a 2.7 percent weekly loss.
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