-
FILE | A woman walks at the Cape Town International Convention Centre during the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in Cape Town, South Africa
Finance leaders from the Group of Twenty (G20) countries agreed a final communique on Friday that stressed the importance of central bank independence following a two-day meeting in Durban, South Africa.
“Central banks are strongly committed to ensuring price stability, consistent with their respective mandates and will continue to adjust their policies in a data-dependent manner. Central bank independence is crucial to achieving this goal,” the communique said.
The ministers and central bankers pledged to boost cooperation.
The issue of central bank independence hung heavily over the meeting following US President Trump’s repeated berating of US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting interest rates, attacks that have roiled global financial markets.
The communique was reached in the absence of US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from the two-day meeting, though Washington was represented by Michael Kaplan, acting undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs.
Bessent also skipped the previous G20 finance chiefs’ gathering in Cape Town in February, even though Washington is due to assume the G20’s rotating presidency in December.
South Africa’s deputy finance minister David Masondo told reporters that the meeting outcomes contained in the communique were “consented to by all members” and centered on “strategic macroeconomic issues”.
The communique also recognised “the importance of the World Trade Organisation to advance trade issues”, while adding the body needed reform.
The agreement is seen as an achievement even though communiques issued by the G20, which emerged as a forum for cooperation to combat the 2008 global financial crisis, are non-binding.
G20 finance ministers failed to reach a joint stance when they met in February, to the dismay of hosts South Africa.
South Africa, under its presidency’s motto “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability”, has aimed to promote an African agenda, with topics including the high cost of capital and funding for climate change action.
The finance ministers and central bank governors said in Friday’s communique that they were committed to addressing debt vulnerabilities in low- and middle-income countries in an effective, comprehensive and systematic manner.
