GOVERNMENTS must slash budget deficits decisively and central banks should not wait too long to raise borrowing costs as side effects from measures prescribed to tackle the global recession may create the next crisis, the Bank for International Settlements said in its annual report released yesterday.
The global economy as well as financial markets were on the mend, though the recovery remained fragile in the advanced economies and in the eurozone the debt crisis put the recovery at risk, the BIS said yesterday.
Global leaders meeting in Toronto agreed to take different paths for shrinking budget deficits and making banking systems safer and Washington in particular has warned against cutting too fast. But the head of the BIS said there was no time to waste.
"We cannot wait for the resumption of strong growth to begin the process of policy correction," BIS General Manager Jaime Caruana told the bank's annual general meeting.
"In particular, delaying fiscal policy adjustment would only risk renewed financial volatility, market disruptions and funding stress."
The BIS, which acts as a bank to central banks and a discussion platform for policy makers, said reforms of the financial system remained key to prevent further crises.
Top central bankers met at the BIS annual meeting in Basel, following the G20 summit where leaders acknowledged the uneven and fragile economic recovery in many countries.
In a reversal from the unity of the past three crisis-era Group of 20 summits, the leaders left room to move at their own pace and adopt "differentiated and tailored" policies.
But the BIS warned powerful support measures had strong side effects and said their dangers were starting to emerge.
"To put it bluntly, the combination of remaining vulnerabilities in the financial system and the side effects of such a long period of intensive care threaten to send the patient into relapse," the BIS report said.
The BIS said if the extraordinary measures were kept in place for too long, policy makers risked creating "zombie" banks or companies, dependent on direct support.
But it acknowledged the tricky situation for policy makers as the stakes were high.
Central banks especially were walking a fine line, the BIS warned. The banking system was still far from sound, as not all crisis-related losses may have been booked.