The South African Reserve Bank published the Chair’s summary of the first G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting held in Cape Town on 26–27 February 2025 under South Africa’s G20 Presidency, after members did not reach consensus on a communique. The summary records discussions across the G20 Finance Track, including the global economic outlook, international financial architecture, sustainable finance, infrastructure, financial sector reforms, financial inclusion, international taxation, and finance and health coordination. Members discussed subdued and divergent growth, receding inflation, and downside risks including geopolitical conflict, fragmentation and protectionism, supply-chain disruption, high debt burdens, persistent inflation, and climate-related shocks. The meeting reaffirmed commitments to rules-based trade, fiscal sustainability and buffer rebuilding, central bank independence, data-dependent monetary policy in line with mandates, and the G20’s April 2021 exchange rate commitment. On international financial architecture, work focused on multilateral development bank reform and monitoring against the G20 roadmap, debt transparency and improvements to the Common Framework for Debt Treatments, and strengthening the global financial safety net, including the IMF Executive Board’s work to develop by June 2025 possible approaches to guide further quota realignment under the 17th General Review of Quota. The Chair’s summary also covered continued work on the G20 cross-border payments roadmap and a planned comprehensive FSB review of implementation of financial reforms, alongside efforts on non-bank financial intermediation, crypto-asset recommendations, cybersecurity incident reporting exchange, and FATF standards including beneficial ownership transparency. It notes planned deliverables and reporting points for work on sustainable finance, infrastructure pipelines and blended finance tools, financial inclusion, and international tax discussions, and states that the next Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting will take place in April 2025 in Washington, DC.
South African Reserve Bank 2025-02-27
South African Reserve Bank releases G20 chair’s summary after finance ministers and central bank governors fail to agree communique in Cape Town
The South African Reserve Bank released the Chair’s summary of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Cape Town, highlighting discussions on global economic outlook, financial architecture, and sector reforms. Key topics included subdued growth, geopolitical risks, and commitments to trade and fiscal sustainability. The summary also addressed multilateral development bank reform, debt transparency, cross-border payments, and upcoming deliverables on sustainable finance and international taxation.