Debt sustainability is SA’s key focus at G20 Finance Track meetings

President Cyril Ramaphosa engages with members of the media following the Group of 20(G20) Foreign Ministers Meeting held at Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg.

2 minutes

President Cyril Ramaphosa says debt sustainability for developing economies is one of the priorities that South Africa will focus on during the Finance Track Meetings of the G20, currently underway in Cape Town.

The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting is hosted by Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana and Governor of the South African Reserve Bank Lesetja Kganyago under South Africa’s G20 Presidency theme of Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability.

Ramaphosa says debt service costs are increasingly crowding out spending on education, healthcare and other social services, as well as infrastructure needed for economic development.

“In recent years, low and middle-income countries have seen their levels of sovereign debt and the cost of servicing that debt rise substantially. The combined external debt stock of low-income countries more than doubled in the decade to 2022. The work of the International Financial Architecture Working Group and other working groups will be particularly important in improving the Common Framework for Debt Treatment, accelerating the reform of multilateral development banks, and strengthening capital flows to emerging markets.”

President Ramaphosa says the G20 is responsible for the effective stewardship of the global economy.

“It also has to foster the conditions for sustainable, resilient and inclusive global growth as a critical element of the broader multilateral system.”