Transcript

G24 Ministers and Governors Press Briefing

October 7, 2016

Mauricio Cardenas, Minister of Finance and Public Credit Colombia

Marilou Uy, Director of the G-24 Secretariat

Randa Elnagar, Communications officer, IMF Communications Department

MS. ELNAGAR: Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the 2016 IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings. This is the G24 press conference. I am Randa Elnagar with the IMF Communications department. We have with us here on the podium the Chairman of the G-24, Mauricio Cardenas, Minister of Finance and Public Credit Colombia and Ms. Marilou Uy, Director of the G-24 Secretariat. Mr Cardenas will give some opening remarks and then we will take your questions.

MR. CARDENAS: Let me welcome all of you to the press conference. You have our communiqué. It is a rather long one. So, I will try to be brief.

We remain concerned with the slow and weak global recovery. High downside risks which could further disrupt growth loom large. While growth prospects of emerging market and developing countries are improving, country conditions vary significantly, with some commodity exporters experiencing a sharp slowdown in economic activity.

At the country level, this means pursuing policies to boost demand and stimulate inclusive growth tailored to country circumstances and available fiscal space. This entails exploring opportunities for economic diversification and, as appropriate, taking measures to improve agricultural productivity, deepen industrialization, and more fully capture the potential of digital technologies.

We are concerned with high levels of inequality within countries. In order to share the benefits of growth more widely, it is increasingly urgent for countries to implement policies aimed at improving social protection. Broadening financial social inclusion and addressing underemployment and unemployment are mandatory.

We emphasized the vital importance of investing in high‑quality infrastructure which can boost growth, increase demand and improve productivity, helping countries achieve the SDGs and meet climate goals. We look to continued support from the World Bank, the IMF, and the multilateral development community to help expand infrastructure investment and catalyze deeper private sector participation in our countries.

At the global level, coordinated multilateral actions are increasingly necessary to support stronger global recovery. We support further focus on the IMF’s lending toolkit and technical assistance to address diverse country needs, including instruments to address sharp drops in commodity prices and non‑economic shocks.

An adequate Global Financial Safety Net anchored by an adequately resourced, quota‑based IMF must be in place. Enhanced surveillance and coordination is required to address spillovers from policies implemented in systemically important economies.

We are deeply concerned about the significant increase in trade restrictions in major economies. We have a shared responsibility to resist protectionist measures and to work toward creating an enabling multilateral environment for trade. Appropriate public policies are needed to ensure that the dividends of global integration are more widely shared and understood.

On financing for development, domestic resource mobilization continues to be key. Enhanced international tax cooperation and intensified global efforts to combat illicit financial flows are integral to this effort. Concessional finance supports low‑income countries in realizing their sustainable development goals and also provides resources to address critical global challenges. We reiterate our call for developed countries to fulfill their ODA commitments and look to a successful 18th Replenishment of the IDA.

We welcome the World Bank’s and the IMF’s support to countries disproportionately affected by the refugee crisis and other non‑economic shocks. We look to further collective action to address the major adverse economic and development consequences of conflict.

On the governance of international financial institutions, we are keen to see the early completion of the IMF’s 15th General Review of Quotas and a new quota formula that further shifts quota shares to emerging market and developing countries to better reflect their weight in the global economy.

On the World Bank Group’s ongoing Shareholding Review, we underscore the multilateral commitment to increasing the voting power of developing and transition countries as a group, according to the Istanbul Principles, and call for exploring options and rules to ensure this outcome, including through forbearance, [?] of individual DTCs, and increasing basic votes.

Let me now open the floor for questions.

If there are no questions, can I make a brief comment for the Spanish‑speaking press on these issues?

MS. ELNAGAR: Please.

Mr. CARDENAS: [THROUGH INTERPRETER] This is a comment in Spanish to offer some remarks on the meeting that was just held and concluded, a meeting of the G24, one of the most important groups on the international plane.

The Group of Twenty‑Four includes developing and emerging countries and provides inputs regarding the appropriate management of multilateral institutions, such as the Bretton Woods Institutions, World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.

This afternoon at the G24 meeting, there was interest of the Group in the recovery of the world economy, in avoiding the taking of protectionist measures which are a break, an obstacle to the improvement of the world economy, and also stressed the importance of diversification of commodities, increasing productivity in the agricultural sector, and using technologies and digital communications to better effect, inter alia.

The point was also made that it was important to face more squarely the problem of inequality and the importance of ensuring that the benefits of globalization would be better available to more people. There was also an emphasis put on the improvement of infrastructure and the engagement of the private sector in that regard, and the assistance of the World Bank and, indeed, all multilateral development banks in the process. This, we believe, will enable economic growth in developing and emerging countries to be jump‑started, to be accelerated.

It was also underscored that cooperation is of the essence, particularly with regard to monetary policies that can have an impact on systemically important economies, such as the one we find ourselves in here, the United States. There is also a recognition of the importance of effective tax policies, the greater contribution of domestic revenues toward diversification and, indeed, improvement in the tax codes in general, especially to avoid illicit financial flows.

The Group of Twenty‑Four also spoke very much in support of countries such as Lebanon, societies that are particularly hit by the refugee flows and the challenges that these imply, urging the provision of financial assistance to face these non‑economic crises that are certainly serious crises, nonetheless, and an appeal, therefore, to these institutions for concessional assistance to that end.

There was also importance given to governance issues, to the importance of giving developing and emerging economies a better standing, a stronger standing in these institutions that would be concomitant with their present weight in the world economy.

To that end, we urge that the necessary revisions be made to the quota systems under the provision of capital here in the International Monetary Fund as well as in the World Bank on the basis of the principles that were set forth in Istanbul that speak precisely to greater participation of developing and emerging and, indeed, economies in transition in the overall economic picture. That, in sum, was the gist of the Group of Twenty‑Four.

QUESTION ‑ [IN SPANISH; UNINTELLIGIBLE]

MR. CARDENAS: [THROUGH INTERPRETER] The call that the Group of Twenty‑Four is making is that there be greater international cooperation in tax regimes and a very urgent call to the multinational companies, to tax havens, and a call also for greater control through cooperation of illicit tax flows that are a form of tax evasion. All of these would be important in order to assist countries to mobilize the resources necessary to investment.

MS. ELNAGAR: Thank you.