Mr Stevens told a conference in Sydney on Tuesday the G20 will be able to inject a sense of ''dynamism and opportunity'' into the world's biggest economies if it follows through with its promised reforms to the ''supply side'' of G20 countries.

He said the prospects for global economic expansion will also improve if G20 governments can unlock the ''huge potential'' for public and private investment in infrastructure; if they make financial systems safer and more certain without crimping growth; and if global ''free trade'' agreements can be made to mean what their

title suggests. This would have significant flow-on effects, he said.

''The [current] highly accommodative financial conditions will then have a more powerful effect in engendering real growth,'' Mr Stevens said. ''[And] a rising confidence dynamic could unfold. The prospects for profitable investments by businesses would be significantly improved.''

The governor's comments came as Treasurer Joe Hockey said he would like to see Russia attend the G20 in November, despite its suspected role in the shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines plane.

Mr Hockey said nobody knew how the fallout from the attack was going to unfold, but he hoped Russia would still attend G20 meetings, culminating with the expected Australian visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

''The Russians have said they will co-operate with all this - let's find out if they are fair dinkum or not,'' Mr Hockey told Sky News.

''Rarely are great things achieved by excluding people from the conversation,'' he said. The G20 summit is placing emphasis on global economic growth. Australia is chairing the meeting and Mr Hockey has said he wants G20 countries to do what they can to lift world growth by 2 per cent more than previous forecasts over five years.