A meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Indonesia ended on Saturday without a joint statement, due to lack of consensus among member countries after disagreements over the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
During the two-day meeting on the island of Bali, the big moneymakers sought answers to the global food and fuel crises and accelerating inflation.
But a new confrontation between the West, who denounce the impact of the war in Ukraine on the economy, and Russia, which believes that Western sanctions are at the origin of the deterioration of the economy, has made an agreement impossible. .
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday accused Russia’s war of having ‘sent shockwaves through the global economy’, and several Western ministers accused Russian economic officials of complicity in the atrocities. committed in Ukraine.
Instead of a joint statement, Indonesia, which is hosting the G20 this year, has come up with a statement on behalf of the presidency, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said.
“We will publish a summary of the presidency which will describe what we have been able to achieve […] of this G20″, she explained during a closing press conference.
Out of 14 paragraphs, two could not get unanimous support from members because they concern “the implications of the war and how to respond to it”, added the Governor of the Central Bank of Indonesia, Perry Warjiyo.
Multiplied risks
He had called for openness on participants to redouble their efforts to achieve coordinated economic policies, as the risks for the world economy were multiplying.
Despite the lack of consensus, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, called on the G20 countries to “do everything in their power to bring inflation down”, adapt their fiscal policy and cooperate , in a statement released after the meeting.
“The outlook has darkened significantly, and uncertainties are exceptionally high,” warned the head of the institution, which is preparing to lower its global growth forecasts again in July.
Faced with higher-than-expected inflation in June, some members of the US Federal Reserve are considering raising policy rates at their next meeting. This prospect, which adds to several rate hikes in recent months, triggers fears of a possible entry into recession in the United States and worries among developing countries, which fear that capital will leave their markets abruptly.
The war in Ukraine was omnipresent in the discussions because of its impact on the markets and because it accentuates a food and energy crisis.
Indonesia, which pursues a non-aligned foreign policy, had not yielded to Western pressure to exclude Russia from G20 meetings.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Silouanov participated virtually with two Russian officials present on site, while his Ukrainian counterpart, Serguiy Marchenko, also spoke online.
This meeting was a preparatory step for the G20 heads of state summit to be held in November in Bali.
Janet Yellen has had bilateral meetings with her counterparts in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Turkey, among others, to campaign for a cap on the price of Russian oil, in order to reduce funding for the Russian military campaign, the Treasury said. .
But this issue was not raised at the G20 meeting, according to the Indonesian minister.
To respond to growing food insecurity around the world, the IMF, World Bank, World Food Programme, FAO and WTO called for action in a joint statement in four areas.
We must “support the most vulnerable, facilitate trade, encourage food production and invest in agriculture resistant to climate change”, summed up Kristalina Georgieva in a message on Twitter on Friday evening.
Indonesia also plans to organize a meeting of agriculture and finance ministers to address food insecurity.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati has announced “progress” on implementing global tax reform, which is expected to introduce a minimum tax of 15% on multinational profits by 2024.
The next G20 financial meeting is scheduled for October in Washington.
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