By Philip Blenkinsop and Maria Martinez
DURBAN (Reuters) -Finance chiefs from the Group of 20 countries stressed the importance of central bank independence in a communique issued on Friday following a two-day meeting in South Africa’s coastal city of Durban.
The ministers and central bankers pledged to boost cooperation as they sealed their first communique since October 2024, a month before President Donald Trump’s election victory and subsequent tariff war.
The issue of central bank independence hung heavily over the meeting following Trump’s repeated berating of U.S. 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 U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from the two-day meeting, though Washington was represented by Michael Kaplan, acting under secretary 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.
“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.
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 centred 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.
(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo, Kopano Gumbi, Colleen Goko, Philip Blenkinsop, Maria Martinez in Durban and Andrea Shalal in Washington; Writing by Philip Blenkinsop and Emelia Sithole-Matarise; Editing by Rachna Uppal and Joe Bavier)
