Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman along with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das co-chairs the first day of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCG) meeting in Washington DC on April 13, 2023. Photo Credit: ANI
The G-20 countries met as the group’s finance ministers and central bank governors (FMCBG) on issues ranging from the debt crisis in poor and middle-income countries, challenges to the global economy including Ukraine, and cryptocurrency risks to transparency in international taxation. discussed. ) met in Washington DC on 12 and 13 April.
This was their second meeting under India’s presidency of the year-long G-20 After First meeting in Bengaluru in February,
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who co-chaired the meetings with Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das, painted an optimistic picture of discussions around countries facing sovereign debt crisis.
Asked about the discussion on Ukraine and whether there would be a communiqué, Ms. Sitharaman indicated that a communiqué was not part of the agenda.
“In this meeting, I think we were very clear that we are not talking about a communique or the Speaker’s statement,” Ms Sitharaman said at a press conference after the meeting, referring to the February Speaker’s statement. It was hinted.
The February meeting contained an outcome document and the chairman’s statement (and not a joint communique), as Russia and China disputed the language surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and no consensus was reached around that part of the message. Was able
The purpose of this week’s meetings, according to a press statement, was to discuss progress made in the G-20 finance track on deliverables set out in the Chair’s summary and outcome document from February.
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Thursday’s press statement discussed in the context of Ukraine during the Global Economy and International Financial Architecture segment, one of three thematic pillars of the meeting.
“The members discussed key challenges to the global economic outlook, including the war in Ukraine, food and energy insecurity, climate change and recent risks to financial stability,” the press statement said. The G-20 members agreed that the grouping could contribute to a common understanding on building a conducive environment for global economic recovery.
The G-20 FMCBG talks followed the ‘Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable’ (GSDR) on Wednesday, April 12, co-chaired by the heads of the World Bank, the IMF and Ms Sitharaman. China, a major creditor to many of these troubled countries, had reportedly agreed to drop a key demand – that the Multilateral Development Bank (MDB), cut down on their loans to these countries, loans to China. But as a condition of accepting damages. Another longstanding criticism of Beijing’s lending practices has been their lack of transparency.
In Wednesday’s GSDR. Ms Sitharaman had called for loan transparency “information sharing” and “clarity” on procedures as well as timely restructuring.
“I am hopeful of a solution for many of these countries,” Ms Sitharaman said on Thursday. He highlighted some of the countries around the table – Zambia, Sri Lanka, Ghana and Ethiopia – in the latest discussions.
“You mentioned China specifically, but I thought [debt] The meeting, all were positively engaged,” she said in response to a question.
Discussions under the Sustainable Finance, Financial Sector and Financial Inclusion pillar include mobilizing finance to combat climate change and global policy responses to crypto assets. Using Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) to enhance financial inclusion and productivity was also discussed, according to the press statement and Ms Sitharaman’s summary of the meetings.
India, which has used DPI in areas such as benefits delivery, financial inclusion and e-commerce, is keen to lead the adoption of DPI-based technologies in other countries, and several discussions have taken place in Washington this week. think-tanks on the Indian experience with DPI and at both the World Bank-IMF institutions.
As part of the discussion under the international taxation pillar, the G-20 countries discussed how to better implement the international taxation agreement from 2021, which seeks to distribute taxes from the largest multinational entities across countries and agreed upon a global minimum tax for Ahead of the meeting, the G20 representatives also talked about the G20 Roadmap on Capital Adequacy Framework (CAFs) of MDBs, i.e. the plan to ensure that banks are adequately capitalised.
The 3rd FMCBG meeting is scheduled for July 2023 at Gandhinagar.