Global recovery, sustainable finance to be part of agenda
The first of a series of G20 Finance Track meetings under India’s presidency will begin on Tuesday. It will deliberate on a raft of critical issues, including global macro-economic challenges in the wake of the Ukraine war, infrastructure development, sustainable finance, health, international taxation and financial sector issues.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had earlier stressed the need for detailed deliberations on the “spill-over effect” of the current global turmoil on emerging and low-income economies.
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The first G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies meeting is scheduled to be held from December 13 to 15 in Bengaluru. It will help shape the agenda for the Finance Track under the Indian G20 Presidency.
The meeting, organised jointly by the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will be co-chaired by economic affairs secretary Ajay Seth and RBI deputy governor Michael D Patra. Relevant senior officials from G20 member countries, and many from other nations and international organisations invited by India, will attend the meeting.
The first Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting under the G20 framework will be held between February 23 and 25 in Bengaluru. The G20 Leaders’ Summit will be organised in New Delhi in September 2023.
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India’s G20 presidency comes at a time of heightened challenges for the world economy, including the devastation caused by the pandemic, the Ukraine conflict and resultant surge in food and energy security concerns, growing debt distress, inflationary pressures and monetary tightening.
New Delhi assumed the G20 presidency from Jakarta from December 1. It will promote the theme of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” or “One Earth, One Family, One Future”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said last month.
On Sunday, economic affairs secretary Seth said, “Prime Minister in his address at the Bali G20 Summit said that the need today is that the benefits of development are universal and all-inclusive. The finance ministry has imbibed this idea in the G20 Finance Track agenda.”
The G20 represents around 85% of the global GDP, over 75% of trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.
Already, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned of a possible recession in advanced economies next year. It has projected global growth to decelerate further to just 2.7% in 2023 from 3.2% this year. The World Trade Organisation expects global trade growth to ease to just 1% in 2023, from 3.5% this year.
The IMF last month slashed its FY23 growth projection for India by 60 basis points from its July forecast to 6.8% but retained its FY24 prediction for the country at 6.1%. Of course, despite the downward revision, India’s growth rates for this fiscal and the next would still be way above the agency’s projected expansion rates for the world economy.
