Canada says Greece, G7 need political will on debt

Greece and the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations need the political will to carry out sound fiscal policy, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Monday.

Greece has a plan to reduce debt and now needs to implement it, Flaherty told a business audience. He said that while the current circumstances and those during the 2008 financial crisis are different, the lack of confidence globally is the same.

Most importantly, both in the United States and the EU, we need to see credible medium-term fiscal plans to support confidence-building in their economies -- confidence by consumers and confidence by business, he said.

Flaherty was speaking as markets globally were falling on fears of a possible sovereign debt default by Greece.

There is a need for political will to maintain sound fiscal policy. That sounds like an obvious thing...but the pressures are always there to spend more money. And it's easy for politicians to say, 'I will spend less money,' but then of course they actually have to do it, he said.

Turning his attention specifically to Greece, the Conservative minister said: They have a plan to control deficits and debt. They have to implement it and as I said earlier, that's not always popular with the people.