World faces bumpy recovery after trip to dentist

By Lucy Hornby and Nopporn Wong-Anan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - When finance ministers from the Asian Pacific region were asked to describe the global economy in one word or sentance, most of them weren't quite pithy enough.

So Reuters has decided to help them boil the answers down into one, collective statement, that strangely enough comes out sounding somewhat like a Central Bank pronouncement:

"IMPROVING RECOVERY and COOPERATION is providing STABILITY as WORK on RESTRUCTURING CONTINUES but BUMPS leave UNCERTAINTIES and DIFFICULTIES for the FAMILY. Do HOMEWORK CAUTIOUSLY, for BETTER HOPE of 'SUSTAINABILIZED' RECOVERY after the world's trip to the DENTIST. DITTO."

And their full answers?

AUSTRALIA: (inaudible)

BRUNEI: I agree with my Australian colleague. We've seen some good RECOVERY and it seems to be a positive turn of events.

CANADA: STABILITY.

INDONESIA: Restoring confidence but a lot of HOMEWORK still to be done.