the president 's remarks tempered the group of 20 's headline achievement at the summit , a deficit - reduction target that had been pushed by canadian prime minister stephen harper , the host of the meeting and a fiscal conservative .
the united states , japan , which is heavily dependent on domestic product by 2016 .
obama and european leaders , in particular , came to the meeting with sharply different views of the strength of the global economic recovery , with the toronto — leaders of the world ’s biggest economies agreed sunday on a timetable for cutting deficits and halting the growth of their debt , but also acknowledged the need to move carefully so that reductions in spending did not set back the fragile global recovery .
 
in a news conference at the meeting 's conclusion , obama said that the world 's largest economic powers had agreed on the need for " continued growth in the short term and fiscal sustainability in the medium term . "
toronto -- president obama warned sunday that the world economic recovery remains " fragile " and urged continued spending to support growth , an expansionist call at the end of a summit marked by an agreement among developed nations to halve their annual deficits within three years .
president obama and treasury secretary timothy f. geithner had consistently advocated a measured approach to debt reduction that would not stymie growth and lead to a double - dip recession .
although there is broad agreement that government debt in the developed world needs to be reduced , there is concern that cutting too fast and too deeply will slow growth and possibly spark a new recession .
and it underscored the conviction of european nations in particular that deficits represented the biggest threat to their economic stability .