World leaders agree to keep stimulus packages

Finance ministers from the world’s leading economies have agreed to keep exceptional anti-recession measures in place for the time being, as well as backing new controls to curb bankers’ pay and bonuses, sources close to G20 talks in London said today.

But European proposals for a cap on bonuses in the financial sector look set to be kicked into the long grass, after Britain and the US resisted the idea as unenforceable.