Cameron: Countries with a surplus must raise spending

David Cameron will use this week's G20 meeting in Cannes to urge the leaders of Germany and China to do more to stimulate their domestic demand.

The Prime Minister wrote in an article yesterday: "We have to push for a more balanced world economy, where countries like the UK do better at saving and investing and trade surplus economies increase domestic consumption". Germany and China are two G20 nations that run persistent trade surpluses.

Mr Cameron will also attempt to fend off efforts from the summit's host, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, to advance the progress of a global financial transaction tax, which would channel funding to development projects.

Mr Sarokozy has asked Bill Gates to investigate the case for such a tax. The former head of Microsoft will present his official report to the G20 on Friday.

The British Government has long argued that such a levy would have to be agreed globally to be workable. But a draft proposal from Mr Gates last month argued that a tax would be feasible for a group of like-minded countries which decided to go it alone.