Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Group of 20 finance chiefs outlined a timetable to rebalance the global economy and discussed taxing financial trades as part of a broader strategy to prevent a repeat of the worst crisis since the Great Depression.

“A credible medium-term plan to cut deficits is needed to tackle shortfalls in public finances,” U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown told finance officials meeting in St. Andrews, Scotland. For now, “a self-sustaining global recovery hangs in the balance” after the worst recession in six decades, he said.

Policy makers want to avoid derailing the recovery by withdrawing the stimulus too soon or by leaving it so long that the resulting debt spooks investors into pushing up market interest rates.

Under the agreed plan, governments will submit their economic programs to the International Monetary Fund by the end of January. They plan to present more concrete plans to smooth out lopsided trade and capital flows at a November summit of G- 20 leaders in South Korea.

Even as the final communique didn’t mention exchange rates, tensions emerged at the summit over the Chinese yuan as central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, deflected calls from Europe and Japan for to let its currency strengthen.

To contact the reporters on this story: Reed Landberg in St. Andrews at landberg@bloomberg.net; Emma Ross-Thomas in St. Andrews at at erossthomas@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 7, 2009 10:53 EST