14-15 April 2016/IMF

The global recovery continues and the financial markets have recovered most of the ground lost earlier in the year since our February meeting in Shanghai. However, growth remains modest and uneven, and downside risks and uncertainties to the global outlook persist against the backdrop of continued financial volatility, challenges faced by commodity exporters and low inflation. Geopolitical conflicts, terrorism, refugee flows, and the shock of a potential UK exit from the European Union also complicate the global economic environment.

2. We welcome policy actions being taken by a number of G20 members to support growth and stabilize markets. We reiterate our commitments to using all policy tools – monetary, fiscal and structural – individually and collectively to foster confidence and strengthen growth. Monetary policy will continue to support economic activity and ensure price stability, consistent with central banks’ mandates, but monetary policy alone cannot lead to balanced growth. Our fiscal strategies aim to support the economy and we will use fiscal policy flexibly to strengthen growth, job creation and confidence, while enhancing resilience and ensuring debt as a share of GDP is on a sustainable path. We are also making tax policy and public expenditure more growth-friendly, including by prioritizing high-quality investment. Furthermore, we will continue to explore policy options, tailored to country circumstances, that the G20 countries may undertake as necessary to support growth and respond to potential risks. We reiterate that excess volatility and disorderly movements in exchange rates can have adverse implications for economic and financial stability. We will consult closely on exchange markets. We reaffirm our previous exchange rate commitments, including that we will refrain from competitive devaluations and we will not target our exchange rates for competitive purposes. We will resist all forms of protectionism. We will carefully calibrate and clearly communicate our macroeconomic and structural policy actions to reduce policy uncertainty, minimize negative spillovers and promote transparency.

3. We have made concrete progress in our enhanced structural reform agenda with support of the OECD, the IMF and other IOs. We have identified and agreed to the priority areas, based on which by July we will further develop and agree upon a set of guiding principles as a reference guide to national reform actions. We will benefit from the priority areas and guiding principles that will be applied in a flexible way to allow members to account for their specific national circumstances. We look forward to proposals for a set of indicators to help monitor and assess our efforts and progress with structural reforms and challenges, taking into account diversity of country circumstances for endorsement at our July meeting. We agreed on the approach to combine our investment strategies with the growth strategies, and remain committed to the effective and timely implementation of our growth strategies. We are reviewing and updating our structural and macroeconomic policies in our growth strategies, including through an enhanced peer review process, to ensure they remain relevant to evolving economic conditions and consistent with the collective growth ambition set by the Brisbane Summit. We will explore further steps to revitalize global trade, lift quality investment and boost innovation as engines for growth. We remain committed to promoting greater inclusiveness and reducing excessive global imbalances.

4. We reaffirm our commitment to advancing the investment agenda with focus on infrastructure, both in terms of quantity and quality. We encourage MDBs to carry out the action plan to optimize their balance sheets as well as take joint actions to formulate quantitative ambition for high quality projects and support infrastructure investment, including catalyzing private sector funding. We look forward to further work on launching the Global Infrastructure Connectivity Alliance to enhance the synergy and cooperation of infrastructure programs, including those at regional level. We will develop a policy guidance note to promote diversified financing instruments for infrastructure and SMEs. We welcome and support the effective implementation of the G20/OECD Corporate Governance and SME Financing Principles as well as the G20 Action Plan on SME Financing as guidance. We welcome the Knowledge Sharing Report submitted by the Global Infrastructure Hub.

5. We are taking actions to continue strengthening the stability and resilience of the international monetary system. We support the work to further strengthen the global financial safety net with the IMF at its center, including through more effective cooperation between the IMF and regional financing arrangements. We also support the work to improve the IMF’s toolkit. We reaffirm our commitment to a strong, quota-based, and adequately resourced IMF. We look forward to the completion of the 15th General Review of Quotas, including a new quota formula, by the 2017 Annual Meetings. We reaffirm that any realignment under the 15th review in quota shares is expected to result in increased shares for dynamic economies in line with their relative positions in the world economy, and hence likely in the share of emerging market and developing countries as a whole. We look forward to the outcomes of the World Bank Group’s shareholding review in accordance with the agreed roadmap and timeframe. To facilitate more orderly, timely and predictable sovereign debt restructuring processes, we are working to foster greater dialogue among official creditors and debtors and to promote the incorporation of enhanced contractual clauses into sovereign bonds. We welcome progress made in Argentina’s effort to end a decade-long dispute and regain access to international capital markets. Building on the work of the IMF, BIS, FSB and OECD, we will continue enhancing the monitoring and analysis of capital flows and risks stemming from capital flow volatility. We welcome the IMF’s ongoing work to review country experiences and policies in dealing with capital flows and identify emerging issues. We also note that the OECD is reviewing its Code on Liberalization of Capital Movements. We will discuss the size of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) during the 11th Basic Period of SDR and reporting official reserves in SDR. We support the examination of possible broader use of SDR.

6. We reiterate our commitments to finalizing remaining core elements and support the timely, full and consistent implementation of our agreed financial sector reform agenda, including the Basel III and total loss absorbing capacity (TLAC) standard. We also reiterate our support for the work by the Basel Committee to refine elements of Basel III framework to ensure its coherence and maximize its effectiveness without further significantly increasing overall capital requirements across the banking sector. We will continue to enhance the monitoring of implementation and effects of reforms to ensure their consistency with our overall objectives, including by addressing any material unintended consequences. We look forward to the coordinated work by the IMF, FSB and BIS to take stock of international experiences with macro-prudential frameworks and tools, to help promote effective macro-prudential policies and report back by our next meeting. We welcome the FSB’s work in cooperation with other standard setting bodies to assess holistically the extent, drivers and possible persistence of shifts in market liquidity across jurisdictions and asset classes and consider policy measures if necessary. We look forward to its planned public consultation in mid-2016 on policy recommendations to address structural vulnerabilities associated with asset management activities. We look forward to the FSB peer review report on country-specific implementation of the FSB policy framework for shadow banking entities, and call upon the membership to address identified gaps and on the FSB to evaluate the case for further policy recommendations if appropriate. We reiterate our commitment to expediting implementation of the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures, and to progressing on the work to enhance central counterparty resilience, recovery planning and resolvability, including on cross-border cooperation arrangements such as Crisis Management Groups, and look forward to the report by the FSB in September. We support the work by the FSB, FATF, World Bank Group, OECD and IMF to assess and address, as appropriate, the decline in correspondent banking services including under the FSB-coordinated action plan, and ask for a report on progress to be sent to the Summit. We reaffirm our support for the work of the GPFI on enhancing SME financing, promoting digital financial inclusion and improving data collection and indicators.

7. We reiterate our commitment to timely and widespread implementation of the G20/OECD BEPS package and encourage all relevant and interested countries and jurisdictions to join the new inclusive framework on an equal footing quickly, noting its first meeting will be in June. The G20 strongly reaffirms the importance of effective and widespread implementation of the internationally agreed standards on transparency. Therefore we call on all relevant countries including all financial centers and jurisdictions, which have not committed to implement the standard on automatic exchange of information by 2017 or 2018 to do so without delay and to sign the Multilateral Convention. We expect that by the 2017 G20 Summit all countries and jurisdictions will upgrade their Global Forum rating to a satisfactory level. We mandate the OECD working with G20 countries to establish objective criteria by our July meeting to identify non-cooperative jurisdictions with respect to tax transparency. Defensive measures will be considered by G20 members against non-cooperative jurisdictions if progress as assessed by the Global Forum is not made. We look forward to the Global Forum report on transparency and information exchange for tax purposes before the end of the year. We welcome the collective and continuous efforts by countries and international organizations to build capacity on tax matters for developing economies. We encourage G20 members to consider committing to the principles of the Addis Tax Initiative.

8. The G20 reiterates the high priority it attaches to financial transparency and effective implementation of the standards on transparency by all, in particular with regard to the beneficial ownership of legal persons and legal arrangements. Improving the transparency of the beneficial ownership of legal persons and legal arrangements is vital to protect the integrity of the international financial system, and to prevent misuse of these entities and arrangements for corruption, tax evasion, terrorist financing and money laundering. The G20 reiterates that it is essential that all countries and jurisdictions fully implement the FATF standards on transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons and legal arrangements and we express our determination to lead by example in this regard. We particularly stress the importance of countries and jurisdictions improving the availability of beneficial ownership information to, and its international exchange between, competent authorities for the purposes of tackling tax evasion, terrorist financing and money laundering. We ask the FATF and the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to make initial proposals by our October meeting on ways to improve the implementation of the international standards on transparency, including on the availability of beneficial ownership information, and its international exchange.

9. We reaffirm our resolve to combat decisively and tackle all sources, techniques and channels of terrorist financing. We call on all countries and jurisdictions to join us in these efforts, including through swift and effective implementation of FATF standards, the new Consolidated Strategy on Combating Terrorist Financing, and provisions of the UN Security Council Resolution 2253. We ask the FATF, working with the relevant IOs, to strengthen its work on identifying and tackling loopholes and deficiencies that remain in the financial system and ensure that the FATF standards are effective and comprehensive, and fully implemented. We call on the FATF-style regional bodies to be vigorous partners. We call on the IMF, OECD, FSB, and the World Bank Group to support FATF in addressing the evolving challenges by bringing in their own analysis, within their respective areas of expertise, of the sources, techniques and channels of illicit financial flows.

10. We welcome the progress made by the G20 Green Finance Study Group (GFSG) in identifying challenges to mobilize private capital for green investment. Many of these challenges can be addressed by financial innovations, knowledge sharing and capacity building, risk analysis and international cooperation. We ask the GFSG to develop, for consideration by countries, more specific options for developing green banking, scaling-up the green bond market, supporting the integration of environmental factors by institutional investors, and developing ways for measuring progress of green financial activities, as part of its synthesis report to be delivered by July.

11. Recognising the importance of the operating entities of the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, we welcome the endorsement of the Strategic Plan for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and call for the Fund’s continued efforts to scale up its operations. We reiterate our call for timely implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the commitments made by developed countries and international organizations and announcements made by other countries on climate finance. We affirm the importance of monitoring and transparency of climate finance. We ask the Climate Finance Study Group (CFSG) to finalize this year’s work and report back to us at our July Meeting. We reaffirm our commitment to implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

12. We reaffirm our commitment to rationalize and phase-out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, over the medium term, recognizing the need to support the poor. Further, we encourage all G20 countries to consider participation in the voluntary peer review of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption.

Annex
Reports received
1. IMF paper on A Guiding Framework on Structural Reforms, March 2016.

2. OECD note on Structural Reform Priorities for the G-20, April 2016.

3. G20/OECD Progress report on diversification of financial instruments and related guidance.

4. G20/GIH Knowledge sharing report.

5. OECD Financing SME and Entrepreneurs 2016: An OECD Scoreboard, April 2016.

6. The OECD Code of Liberalisation of Capital Movements: recent developments, report by the OECD.

7. FSB’s Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures: Phase I Report: April 2016

8. OECD Secretary-General’s Report to G20 Finance Ministers, Update on Tax Transparency.

9. OECD Survey of Large Pension Funds and Public Pension Reserve Funds.

Issues for further action
1. We request the Framework Working Group (FWG) to further work on the guiding principles as well as the proposed structural reform indicator system, with the aim to submit for the Deputies’ review in June and for our endorsement in July. Recognizing the analytical work by the IMF and the OECD, we call on the IMF, the OECD and other IOs to continue to provide technical support on the enhanced structural reform agenda.

2. We ask the IMF, OECD and WBG to update the assessment of the implementation of key commitments in our growth strategies, as well as of progress towards our collective growth ambition as defined in Brisbane, and report back to us by our meeting in July.

3. We ask relevant IOs to provide assessments of developments in trade and investment to inform our revised growth strategies for the next FWG meeting.

4. We ask the WBG, OECD and other relevant IOs to provide draft outcome documents regarding the priorities of 2016 investment agenda, leading to the final deliverables for our July meeting.

5. We look forward to the development of assessment methodology of the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance.

6.We look forward to the FSB’s second annual report on implementation and effects of regulatory reforms, which will reflect key outcomes from the FSB’s workshop in May.

7. We look forward to considering the final report and recommendations of the FSB’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures in early 2017.

8. We look forward to the G20 Tax Symposium in July, to discuss the role tax policy can play in achieving a strong, sustainable and balanced economic growth.

9. We look forward to receiving recommendations from the IMF, OECD, WBG and UN on mechanisms to help ensure effective implementation of technical assistance programs, and on how countries can contribute funding for tax projects and direct technical assistance at our July meeting.

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1. We, the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, met to discuss the current situation in the global economy and to bring forward the policy agenda for our Leaders’ summit in September.

Global Economy and G20 Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth

2. We reaffirmed our determination to raise growth and create jobs.

3. The global economy has avoided some major tail risks and financial market conditions continue to improve. However, global growth has continued to be too weak and unemployment remains too high in many countries. The recovery remains uneven and is progressing at different speeds with emerging markets experiencing relatively strong growth, the United States demonstrating a gradual strengthening of private demand, and the recovery in the euro area as a whole yet to materialize. Policy uncertainty, private deleveraging, fiscal drag, impaired credit intermediation, and a still incomplete rebalancing of global demand continue to weigh on global growth prospects. Medium-term challenges are also present in many economies, including those related to fiscal sustainability and financial stability.

4. We have agreed that while progress has been made, further actions are required to make growth strong, sustainable and balanced. Some countries have taken steps to stimulate activity since we last met. In particular, Japan’s recent policy actions are intended to stop deflation and support domestic demand. In addition, Korea announced an active macroeconomic policy package. However, much more is needed to fulfill our commitment to address the ongoing weakness in the global economy. Major policy priorities remain largely the same. In the euro area the foundations of economic and monetary union should be enhanced, including through an urgent movement towards banking union, further reducing financial fragmentation, and continued strengthening of banks’ balance sheets. Further progress toward a balanced medium-term fiscal consolidation plan is necessary for the United States, although significant deficit reduction has already been achieved. Japan should define a credible medium-term fiscal plan. Large surplus economies should consider taking further steps to boost domestic sources of growth. We will continue to implement ambitious structural reforms to increase our growth potential and create jobs.

5. Maintaining fiscal sustainability in advanced economies remains essential. Advanced economies will develop medium-term fiscal strategies by the time of the St Petersburg Summit in line with the commitments made by our Leaders in Los Cabos. We will present and review our strategies at our next meeting.

6. We reiterate our commitments to move more rapidly toward more market-determined exchange rate systems and exchange rate flexibility to reflect underlying fundamentals, and avoid persistent exchange rate misalignments. We will refrain from competitive devaluation and will not target our exchange rates for competitive purposes, and we will resist all forms of protectionism and keep our markets open. We reiterate that excess volatility of financial flows and disorderly movements in exchange rates have adverse implications for economic and financial stability.  Monetary policy should be directed toward domestic price stability and continuing to support economic recovery according to the respective mandates of central banks. We will be mindful of unintended negative side effects stemming from extended periods of monetary easing.

International Financial Architecture

7. Completing the ongoing reforms of IMF governance is indispensable for enhancing its credibility, legitimacy and effectiveness. For this reason the ratification of the 2010 IMF Quota and Governance Reform is urgently needed. We support the IMF Executive Board’s decision to integrate the process of reaching a final agreement on a new quota formula with the 15^th General Review of Quotas. We remain committed, together with the whole IMF membership, to agree on the quota formula and complete the 15^th General Quota Review by January 2014 as agreed at the Seoul Summit and reiterated in Cannes and Los Cabos. We attach high importance to securing continued progress in meeting this objective, including on key elements at the September St Petersburg Summit and subsequently at the October 2013 G20 Ministerial and IMFC meetings. We reaffirm our previous commitment that the distribution of quotas based on the formula should better reflect the relative weights of IMF members in the world economy, which have changed substantially in view of strong GDP growth in dynamic emerging market and developing countries. We reaffirm the need to protect the voice and representation of the IMF poorest members as part of this General Review of Quotas.

8. In pursuit of our goal of strengthening the existing practices of public debt management, we ask the IMF and the World Bank to consult with their members regarding the implementation and a possible review of the “Guidelines for Public Debt Management”. This will help ascertain if amendments are required to take into account, among other things, evolution in the issuance environment and the emergence of complex interactions between public debt management, monetary and fiscal policies. We look forward to an update on this work by our July meeting and a progress report to the Leaders’ Summit in September. We also note the ongoing work of the OECD to review leading practices for raising, managing and retiring public debt. We welcome the ongoing efforts to strengthen the Fund’s public debt sustainability analysis framework for market-access countries, which is focused on key risks from high debt burden and its profile, macro-fiscal developments, and contingent liabilities. We expect that this will complement our work on medium term fiscal strategies.

9. We reaffirm the important role that Regional Financing Arrangements (RFAs) can play in the global financial safety nets.  Further facilitating the dialog among RFAs, as well as strengthening cooperation and increasing complementarities between the IMF and RFAs, while safeguarding the independence of the respective institutions, could support financial stability and thus help promote growth. We note the IMF work on stocktaking of its engagement with RFAs, as well as the recent G20/IMF seminar that reviewed developments in RFAs and explored options for enhancing their cooperation with the IMF. Starting from this basis, and building on the principles for IMF-RFA cooperation we agreed in Cannes, we will discuss possible ways to further enhance that cooperation at our next meeting, in order to assess possible options for further policy recommendations by the time of the Leaders’ Summit in St Petersburg.

10. We will contribute to a successful International Development Association (IDA) 17 replenishment, as well as African Development Fund (AfDF) 13 replenishment.

Long-term Financing for Investment

11. We underscore the importance of long-term financing for investment, including in infrastructure, in enhancing economic growth and job creation. We are taking forward work on this issue, including through adoption of the Terms of Reference of the new G20 Study Group, with inputs envisaged from the World Bank Group, OECD, FSB, IMF, UN, UNCTAD, and from participating countries. These inputs will cover their experience and good practices in creating the necessary conditions for mobilizing long-term financing for investment and promoting a sound investment climate. We will consider the Study Group’s work plan and any additional policy recommendations later this year. We welcome progress by the OECD on the High Level Principles for long-term investment financing by institutional investors and look forward for a report by our next meeting.

Financial Regulation

12. Half of G20 jurisdictions have now issued final regulations to implement Basel III, and the remainder commits to do so as soon as possible in 2013. We welcome the assessments, in some cases initial and ongoing, by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision of consistency of these regulations with its framework and look forward to further progress on ensuring the conformity of the regulations with the Basel III text. We look forward to the July report on comparability of risk-weighted assets. We will undertake the necessary legislative steps to implement resolution powers and tools consistent with the FSB’s Key Attributes of Effective Resolution Regimes, including the legal basis for cross-border cooperation and coordination. Our objective is to allow authorities to resolve financial institutions in an orderly manner. The FSB will report to the St Petersburg Summit on the progress made towards ending “too big to fail”. We note the progress in implementation of OTC derivatives reforms and we are committed to complete the remaining legislative and regulatory frameworks for these reforms. We look forward to the macroeconomic impact study of OTC regulatory reforms, which is underway. We urge the key regulators to intensify their efforts to address cross-border derivatives issues and report by our July meeting specific and practical recommendations to resolve by the St Petersburg Summit remaining cross-border conflicts, inconsistencies, gaps and duplicative requirements. We also call for a feasibility study on how information from trade repositories can be aggregated and shared among authorities, so as to enable comprehensive monitoring of risks to financial stability. Jurisdictions should remove barriers to trade reporting by market participants, with particular attention to removing barriers to reporting of counterparty information and to information access by authorities. We look forward to further policy recommendations for the oversight and regulation of the shadow banking sector by the Leaders’ Summit. We support the Regulatory Oversight Committee of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) initiative in their efforts to launch the Global LEI Foundation as soon as possible. We reiterate our call on the IASB and FASB to finalize by the end of 2013 their work on key outstanding projects for achieving a single set of high-quality standards.

13. We welcome the work of the BIS and IOSCO to improve the oversight and governance frameworks for financial benchmarks, and call on the FSB to coordinate and guide work on the necessary reforms to short-term interest rate benchmarks and to report in July on progress towards oversight and governance frameworks for financial benchmark reform for consideration at the Summit. We support the launch of the FSB’s peer review on national authorities’ steps to reduce reliance on credit rating agencies’ ratings, and ask for a status report including the work by standard setting bodies to be presented to the Leaders at the St Petersburg Summit. We take note of the IOSCO Report on Transparency and Competition Among Credit Rating Agencies. We ask the FSB to examine the need for further work in this area in the light of current domestic and regional regulatory initiatives.

14. More needs to be done to address the issues of international tax avoidance and evasion, in particular through tax havens, as well as non-cooperative jurisdictions. We welcome the Global Forum’s report on the effectiveness of information exchange. We commend the progress made by many jurisdictions, but urge all jurisdictions to quickly implement the recommendations made, in particular the 14 jurisdictions, where the legal framework fails to comply with the standard. Moreover, we are looking forward to overall ratings to be allocated by year end to jurisdictions reviewed on their effective practice of information exchange and monitoring to be made on a continuous basis.  In view of the next G20 Summit, we also strongly encourage all jurisdictions to sign or express interest in signing the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters and call on the OECD to report on progress. We welcome progress made towards automatic exchange of information which is expected to be the standard and urge all jurisdictions to move towards exchanging information automatically with their treaty partners, as appropriate. We look forward to the OECD working with G20 countries to report back on the progress in developing of a new multilateral standard on automatic exchange of information, taking into account country-specific characteristics. The Global Forum will be in charge of monitoring. We welcome the progress made in the development of an action plan on tax base erosion and profit shifting by the OECD and look forward to a comprehensive proposal and a substantial discussion at our next meeting in July.

15. We reiterate our support for FATF work, notably the identification and monitoring of high-risk jurisdictions with strategic AML/CFT deficiencies. We must tackle the risks raised by opacity of legal persons and legal arrangements, and encourage all countries to take measures to ensure they meet the FATF standards regarding the identification of the beneficial owners of legal persons, other corporate vehicles and trusts, that is also relevant for tax purposes.

Financial Inclusion

16. We welcome the launch of the Financial Inclusion Support Framework. We welcome the upcoming Seminar on “Women and Finance” and the launch of the Women’s Finance Hub hosted by the SME Finance Forum, which will provide best practices and knowledge sharing.  We call on the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion to report on the gaps and challenges in the global environment for SME finance, as well as potential policy responses, by our July meeting. We welcome the Financial Action Task Force’s revised Guidance on Financial Inclusion as an important step in helping to create an enabling regulatory environment for innovative financial inclusion.

Source: IMF

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