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The report was prepared for senior G20 officials who are meeting in Shanghai later this week amid falling equity markets, volatile currencies and signs of economic weakness throughout the world. "The G20 must plan now for coordinated demand support using available fiscal space to boost public investment," IMF staff said in the report. The Shanghai meeting is already being compared to the G20 meeting in April 2009 when officials agreed on coordinated stimulus to prevent a worldwide depression during the global financial crisis. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew downplayed expectations of a G20 emergency plan this week, telling Bloomberg Television...

U.S. officials turning up pressure on Europe to boost stimulusLONDON (MarketWatch) -- Don't look for the world's most powerful economic policy makers to come up with a sweeping prescription for a deepening global recession when they gather this weekend in southern England.The meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the world's 20 largest industrialized and emerging economies Friday and Saturday at a luxury hotel near Brighton comes amid a growing disagreement between the United States and Europe over Washington's call for additional government spending to rev up slumping global demand. 'The possibility that the upcoming [G20] meeting could provide...