Among Others, Review of Ongoing Global Economic Developments, Growth Prospects, Investment and Infrastructure, International Financial Architecture and International Tax Issues Are High on Agenda During the Finance Minister’s Visit

During his ongoing visit to  Ankara, Turkey to attend G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting on 4^th and 5^th September 2015,  the Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley will also participate in the Joint meeting of G-20 Finance and Labour Ministers as well as in the First Meeting of the Governing Council of BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA).The main purpose of these meetings is to review ongoing global economic developments, growth prospects, investment and infrastructure, international financial architecture and international tax issues among others.

The recent devaluation of major currencies followed by currency depreciations in a large number of Asian Emerging markets raises the risk of competitive devaluations. Competitive currency devaluations, at a time when global demand is sluggish, is a major threat to stability in the global economy. The attempt in Ankara would be to analyse the situation and consider collaborative measures like developing the global safety nets to protect countries from negative spillovers arising from domestic actions.

Finance Ministers of G-20 countries will also review the progress on the G-20/OECD High Level Principles on SME financing and the establishment of the private sector-led World SME Forum, a new initiative to serve as a global body to drive the contributions of SMEs to growth and employment. G-20 Finance ministers will also deliberate on country specific investment strategies that identify measures to improve and promote investment in infrastructure.

The Joint meeting of G-20 Finance and Labour ministers will address issues of employment and growth, inequalities, declining ratio of labour income in GDP, youth unemployment and skilled labour mobility.

The Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley will also attend the First Meeting of the Governing Council of BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA). CRA has been conceived as an additional safety net by the BRICS nations to meet the short-term liquidity needs that may arise in face of volatile capital flows. The total corpus of CRA is USD 100 bn.

Global financial stability coordination urges collaborative safety nets to mitigate competitive currency devaluations and cross-border spillovers. Review of global economic developments focuses on currency devaluations and the risk of competitive devaluations, with emphasis on developing collaborative global safety nets to protect against negative spillovers and volatile capital flows. The meetings will advance G 20/OECD principles on SME financing and the World SME Forum, address employment and labour income concerns in a joint finance labour forum, consider country specific infrastructure investment strategies, review international tax issues, and participate in the Governing Council meeting of the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement as an additional liquidity safety net.