G-20

G20 Summits: What was discussed and when

Since its inception in 2008. Since 2008 what were on the agenda of the G20 and trace the agenda from 2008 2012. What were the issues & to a certain extent what were the outcomes.

2008, Washington DC 14th 15th November Special Leaders Summit on the Financial Situation
SUMMIT ON FINANCIAL MARKETS AND THE WORLD ECONOMY Amid serious challenges to the world economy and financial markets, the Leaders of the Group of Twenty held an initial meeting in Washington from 14-15th November, with the agenda being financial markets and the world economy. The Leaders in their declaration asserted that they were determined to enhance cooperation and work together to restore global growth and achieve needed reforms in the worlds financial systems. They also stressed on the need to lay the foundation for reforms to help to ensure that a global crisis, such as this one, does not happen again. They reaffirmed that their work would be guided by a shared belief, that market principles, open trade and investment regimes, and effectively regulated financial markets foster the dynamism, innovation, and entrepreneurship that are essential for economic growth, employment and poverty reduction. Some of the agreed steps and measures that featured in the declaration were:1)Working to ensure that international financial institutions (IFIs) can provide critical support for the global economy. 2) That a broader policy response is needed based on closer macroeconomic cooperation, to restore growth, avoid negative spillovers and support emerging market economies and developing countries. 3) Stress the International Monetary Funds (IMF) important role in crisis response, 4) Ensure that the IMF, World Bank and other MDBs have sufficient resources to continue playing their role in overcoming the crisis. 5) Committed to addressing other critical challenges such as energy security and climate change, food security, the rule of law, and the fight against terrorism, poverty and disease. The five commonly agreed principles for reforms were, Strengthening Transparency and Accountability; Enhancing Sound Regulation, Promoting Integrity in Financial Markets Reinforcing International Cooperation, Reforming International Financial Institutions Based on these, an Action Plan was also set forth, to implement the five agreed principles for reform. The respective finance ministers would work to ensure that the tasking set forth in this Action Plan are fully and vigorously implemented. They would be responsible for the development and implementation of these recommendations drawing on the ongoing work of relevant bodies, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an expanded Financial Stability Forum (FSF), and standard setting bodies. The leaders not only directed the tasking of ministers and experts but also reaffirmed their commitment to an open global economy.

The Summit Results The first G20 summit was a substantial success, with achievements across all the domains of domestic political management, deliberation, direction setting, decision making, delivery and development of global governance. It appropriately and ambitiously acted to deliver decisions in areas directly controlled by government, notably trade, fiscal stimulus and international institutional reform, while leaving private sector driven finance to the realm of experts from the public and private sectors. It thus created an ongoing summitguided, multilevel process grounded in the decade-old G20 finance ministers forum but promising to produce a permanent G20 summit institution as the centre of global financial and economic governance for the new world of globalized, private-sectorled finance and economic growth.

2009, London, U.K 1st -2nd April London Summit

SUMMIT ON FINANCIAL MARKETS AND THE WORLD ECONOMY

The second Group of Twenty (G20) summit, held in London on April 2, 2009, closed the gap among and dispelled concerns on the part of member states made manifest prior to the summitby examining the status of the implementation of the agreements hammered out at the first G20 summit in Washington, DC on November 15, 2008 and charting a more concrete plan of action. The G20 participants adopted a 29point Leaders Statement as well as three annexed declarations. The main points of these documents can be summarized as: 1) restoring growth and jobs; 2) strengthening financial supervision and regulation; 3) strengthening our global financial institutions; 4) resisting protectionism and promoting global trade and investment; and 5) ensuring fair and sustainable recovery for all. The summit is significant because, first of all, it built a psychological stabilizing fin that is crucial for coping with the economic crisis sweeping the globe. Secondly, the London summit served as a forum for member states to surmount their various differences of opinion across the gamut of issues on the agenda and thrash out a single set of agreements. Countries that had offered incongruous diagnoses for the global financial crisisnamely the United States, which hoped for increased public spending, and European countries, for example France and Germany, which called for preventing the spread and recurrence of the economic crisis by strengthening supervision and regulationfound a satisfactory common ground at the summit. What made that possible was Washingtons conciliatory attitude, cooperation among European nations, and Chinas strategic approach. One crucial task the London summit failed to perform, however, is to map out a concrete plan for solving the problem that stands at the heart of the persisting financial crisis toxic assets estimated to worth US$2.2 trillion. Hence, it is

difficult ascertain whether the fivetrillion dollar global economic stimulus package agreed upon by the G20 member states in London is appropriate in the first place.

2009, Pittsburgh, U.S.A 24th -25th September Pittsburgh Summit

SUMMIT ON FINANCIAL MARKETS AND THE WORLD ECONOMY The third Group of Twenty (G-20) summit held in Pittsburgh on September 24-25, 2009 can be called a transformational success for several reasons. First, it went beyond the short-term goal of overcoming the immediate crisis and focused on global economic operations from a more mid- to long-term perspective. Second, whereas previous G-20 forums were centered on economic policy cooperation aimed primarily at economic revitalization, the latest meeting addressed a slightly more comprehensive scope of economic issues, to include climate change policy. Third, the 20 participating leaders agreed to institutionalize the G-20 and turn it into a premier forum. The Pittsburgh summit gave more concrete shape to the measures agreed upon at the second London summit to overcome the global financial crisis and prevent further recurrences. The summit, for example, 1) called for raising capital standards starting in 2012; 2) endorsed implementing a compensation system of strengthened regulation, as prescribed by the Financial Stability Board (FSB); 3) reaffirmed the standstill agreement of prohibiting new barriers to trade and investment; and 4) reiterated G-20 member states' commitment to concluding the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations.

The 20 leaders agreed to launch a framework for strong, sustainable and balanced global growth and continue to work toward reform in international economic organizations, such as the IMF or the World Bank, which will play a bigger role in assisting mutual assessment, monitoring policy implementation, and raising financial resources for further development in developing countries. As a result, they paved the way for the framework to function as a comprehensive mechanism for reducing trade imbalances and stimulating global economic growth as a whole. The G-20 as a premier forum for international economic cooperation, the 20 leaders recognized the G-20 as a mechanism of global governance which will oversee the global economic order in the 21st century and, moreover, agreed to further institutionalize the G-20 by holding annual G-20 summits. This will have major implications for change not only in the economic sector but also on the political scene. The consensus on launching a framework for sustainable, balanced growth is significant, because it will enable the international community to reduce trade imbalances (rebalancing), which have been pointed out as one of the structural problems behind financial and economic crises. However, trade rebalancing has limits of its own, because the political sensitivity of the issue in the United States and China. While the G-20 may well undermine the sense of need for bilateral cooperation on the global stage, and the international political significance of trade imbalance per se is too deep. Hence, it would be difficult to hope for improvement over the short term. While the G-20 may well be designated as a premier forum for international economic cooperation and thus replace the G-7 or the G-8 over the medium to long term, the G-20 would have to undergo the difficult process of establishing its own position and proving its usefulness.

2010, Toronto, Canada 26th-27th September Toronto Summit

SUMMIT ON FINANCIAL MARKETS AND THE WORLD ECONOMY G-20 leaders met in Toronto, under the new role of the G-20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation and at a critical juncture in the global economic recovery. Leaders reaffirmed their collective resolve to safeguard and strengthen recovery and foster strong, sustainable and balanced growth. Sustainable and Balanced Growth At the Pittsburgh Summit, the G-20 had agreed to take action to address imbalances in the global economy by launching the Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth. The Framework committed G-20 countries to

evaluate their national policies to ensure they are collectively consistent with more sustainable and balanced trajectories of growth. In Toronto, G-20 leaders reviewed progress under the Framework and agreed on specific measures to be undertaken over the medium-term that will help ensure recovery of the global economy and put it on a path to strong and sustainable growth. In particular, they agreed that G-20 members will complete their planned fiscal stimulus and that advanced members will at least halve their deficits by 2013 and stabilize government debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratios or put them on a downward path by 2016. Leaders also agreed on actions to be taken by G-20 members to bolster global growth as the process of fiscal consolidation gets underway in many countries. Financial Sector Reform At the Pittsburgh Summit, leaders agreed on actions necessary to strengthen financial regulatory systems in order to avoid a return to the excessive risktaking that contributed to the recent global economic and financial crisis. At the G-20 Toronto Summit, leaders reviewed progress on the financial sector reform agenda. Leaders agreed that the amount and quality of capital held by our banks must be significantly higher and that higher standards must be complemented with strengthened supervision. They also committed to ensure that the G-20 countries have all the powers and tools to resolve financial institution crises and to adopt principles to guide implementation, while recognizing that specific policy approaches will vary from country to country. Reform of International Financial Institutions International financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have played an integral role in the response to the economic crisis by providing resources to achieve financial stability and assistance to those hardest hit by the downturn. In Toronto, G-20 leaders announced that the lending capacity of the multilateral development banks had been doubled through $350 billion in general capital increases, which will bolster capacity of the international financial institutions to help those most vulnerable.

Global Trade and Growth The G-20 has been largely successful at avoiding the types of protectionist measures that turned the stock market crash of 1929 into the Great Depression. In Pittsburgh, leaders committed to continuing efforts to guard against protectionism and to liberalize trade. Canada, which has unilaterally lowered tariffs as part of its stimulus package, worked with G-20 partners to encourage ongoing efforts towards further liberalization. In Toronto, recognizing that global trade is a driver for growth, the G-20 leaders extended their commitment to resist protectionism for an additional three years, until 2013, and agreed to continue their efforts to bring the World Trade

Organization Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations to a balanced and ambitious conclusion as soon as possible. They also committed to maintain momentum for Aid for Trade, which helps developing countries participate more fully in global trade. The Outcome This summit had both the positive and negative responses from the global arena. But according to some experts views and reports, the drawbacks and failures of the summit were as follows, Firstly, leaders failed to embed their fiscal policy debate in an integrated global economy perspective, in which the real issue is whether expansionary fiscal and monetary policies in some G20 countries will be sufficient to offset contractionary austerity policies in other G20 countries. Instead, there was a push for all G20 countries to agree on the same fiscal policy path, rather than an attempt to evaluate the divergent policy preferences now within a longer-term global economy perspective. This is both a policy and communications failure, which means it is a failure of political leadership. Second, the utter void in the articulation of the G20 Framework on Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth as a communications vehicle for explaining the fiscal debate and embedding it in a longer-term, more integrated framework, meshes with the mismanagement of the fiscal policy debate. The G20 Framework was precisely the communications tool that would have helped bridge the gap between deficit hawks and deficit doves and convey a sense of common strategic direction over the medium term.

2010, Seoul, South Korea 11th -12th November Seoul Summit

SUMMIT ON FINANCIAL MARKETS AND THE WORLD ECONOMY

Leaders of the G-20, amid serious global challenges met at Seoul from 11th -12th November, 2010, where the agenda saw an integrated outlook from economies integrated to the challenges of balanced growth, climate changes, corruption and financial reforms. They not only framed an action plan but reaffirmed their commitment towards a strong, sustainable and balanced growth. In this view, the leaders agreed on a common framework on different perspectives. Some of them are as follows:Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth 1. "Our unprecedented and highly coordinated fiscal and monetary stimulus worked to bring back the global economy from the edge of a depression. This has highlighted that the world would benefit from more effective international cooperation. In Pittsburgh, we launched the Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth and committed to work together to assess the collective implications of our national policies on global growth and development, identify potential risks to the global economy, and take additional actions to achieve our shared objectives. 2. "Since then, we have made important progress through our country-led, consultative Mutual Assessment Process (MAP) of the Framework: * "Supportive economic policies have been put in place to promote ongoing recovery and job creation; * "Explicit commitments have been made to put public finances on a sustainable track; Strong measures have been adopted and are being implemented to safeguard the stability of our financial system; * "Important structural reforms have been launched and/or planned to boost global demand and potential growth; and * "Significant steps have been taken to strengthen the capacity of international financial institutions (IFIs) in support of development. 3. "Since we last met, the global recovery continues to advance, but downside risks remain. We are resolved to do more. Our strengthened collaborative and collective policy actions can further safeguard the recovery and lay a solid foundation for our shared objectives of strong, sustainable and balanced growth. The Seoul Action Plan 4."Today we are launching the Seoul Action Plan. We shaped the Plan with unity of purpose to: * "ensure an unwavering commitment to cooperation; * "outline an action-oriented plan with each member's concrete policy commitments; and * "deliver on all three objectives of strong, sustainable and balanced growth. 5. "Specifically, we commit to actions in five policy areas with details of specific commitments by G20 members set out in the Supporting Document. 6. "Monetary and Exchange Rate Policies: We reaffirm the importance of central banks' commitment to price stability, thereby contributing to the recovery and sustainable growth.

7. "Trade and Development Policies: We reaffirm our commitment to free trade and investment recognizing its central importance for the global recovery. We will refrain from introducing, and oppose protectionist trade actions in all forms

and recognize the importance of a prompt conclusion of the Doha negotiations. We reaffirm our commitment to avoid financial protectionism and are mindful of the risks of proliferation of measures that would damage investment and harm prospects for the global recovery. 8. "Fiscal Policies: Advanced economies will formulate and implement clear, credible, ambitious and growth-friendly medium-term fiscal consolidation plans in line with the Toronto commitment, differentiated according to national circumstances. We are mindful of the risk of synchronized adjustment on the global recovery and of the risk that failure to implement consolidation, where immediately necessary, would undermine confidence and growth. 9. "Financial Reforms: We are committed to take action at the national and international level to raise standards, and ensure that our national authorities implement global standards developed to date, consistently, in a way that ensures a level playing field, a race to the top and avoids fragmentation of markets, protectionism and regulatory arbitrage. In particular, we will implement fully the new bank capital and liquidity standards and address too-big-to-fail problems. We agreed to further work on financial regulatory reforms. The developed and emerging nations agreed at a summit in Seoul to set vague "indicative guidelines" measuring imbalances between their multispeed economies but, calling a timeout to let tempers cool, left the details to be discussed next year. The leaders also pledged to move toward market-determined exchange rate systems and to enhance currency flexibility to reflect economic fundamentals. The G20 added that those emerging economies with increasingly overvalued exchange rates that face an undue burden of adjustment would be justified in taking "carefully designed macro-prudential measures" to counter capital inflows. OTHER KEY POINTS IN THE G20 COMMUNIQUE - Advanced economies will guard against disorderly exchange rate movements, which will help mitigate the risk of excessive volatility in capital flows facing some emerging economies, the communiqu said. - G20 leaders also said they had encouraged further progress on looking at ways that "too big to fail" banks could boost their loss-absorbing capacity. - "Risks remain. Some of us are experiencing strong growth, while others face high levels of unemployment and sluggish recovery. Uneven growth and widening imbalances are fueling the temptation to diverge from global solutions into uncoordinated actions. However, uncoordinated policy actions will only lead to worse outcomes for all." - Leaders also agreed that there was a critical, but narrow, window of opportunity to conclude the long-elusive Doha round of trade liberalization launched in 2001.

2011, Cannes, France 3rd -4th, November Cannes Summit

SUMMIT ON FINANCIAL MARKETS AND THE WORLD ECONOMY
The G-20 leaders in view of weakening of global recovery leaving unemployment to unacceptable level and increasing economic tensions in the Europe once again met in Cannes on 3-4 November 2011 and reaffirmed their commitment to work together and to take decisions to reinvigorate economic growth, create jobs, ensure financial stability, promote social inclusion and make globalization serve the needs of the people. This time the agenda on the table had even more diverse agendas and solutions to the challenges in the areas like agriculture, climate change, corruption, multilateral trading system, development etc. Some of the major experts from the declaration are as follows:A global strategy for growth and jobs We have agreed on an Action plan for Growth and Jobs to address short term vulnerabilities and strengthen medium-term foundations for growth. We are determined to strengthen the social dimension of globalization. We firmly believe that employment and social inclusion must be at the heart of our actions and policies to restore growth and confidence. We therefore decide to set up a G20 task force which will work as a priority on youth employment. Towards a more stable and resilient International Monetary System We affirm our commitment to move more rapidly toward more marketdetermined exchange rate systems and enhance exchange rate flexibility to reflect underlying economic fundamentals, avoid persistent exchange rate misalignments and refrain from competitive devaluation of currencies. We are determined to act on our commitments to exchange rate reform articulated in our Action plan for Growth and Jobs to address short term vulnerabilities and restoring financial stability and strengthen the medium-term foundations for growth. We will ensure the IMF continues to have resources to play its systemic role to the benefit of its whole membership, building on the substantial resources we have already mobilized since London in 2009. We stand ready to ensure additional resources could be mobilised in a timely manner and ask our finance ministers by their next meeting to work on deploying a range of various options including bilateral contributions to the IMF, SDRs, and voluntary contributions to an IMF special structure such as an administered account. We will expeditiously implement in full the 2010 quota and governance reform of the IMF. Addressing commodity price volatility and promoting agriculture Promoting agricultural production is key to feed the world population. To that end, we decide to act in the framework of the Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture agreed by our Ministers of Agriculture in June 2011. In particular, we decide to invest in and support research and development of agriculture productivity. We have launched the "Agricultural Market Information System" (AMIS) to reinforce transparency on agricultural products' markets. To improve food security, we commit to develop appropriate risk-management instruments and humanitarian emergency tools. We decide that food purchased for non-

commercial humanitarian purposes by the World Food Program will not be subject to export restrictions or extraordinary taxes. We welcome the creation of a "Rapid Response Forum", to improve the international community's capacity to coordinate policies and develop common responses in time of market crises. Improving energy markets and pursuing the Fight against Climate Change 20. We are determined to enhance the functioning and transparency of energy markets. We commit to improve the timeliness, completeness and reliability of the JODI-oil database and to work on the JODI-gas database along the same principles. We call for continued dialogue annually between producers and consumers on short medium and long-term outlook and forecasts for oil, gas and coal. We ask relevant organizations to make recommendations on the functioning and oversight of price reporting agencies. We reaffirm our commitment to rationalise and phase-out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, while providing targeted support for the poorest. 21. We are committed to the success of the upcoming Durban Conference on Climate Change and support South Africa as the incoming President of the Conference. We call for the implementation of the Cancun agreements and further progress in all areas of negotiation, including the operationalization of the Green Climate Fund, as part of a balanced outcome in Durban. We discussed the IFIs report on climate finance and asked our Finance Ministers to continue work in this field, taking into account the objectives, provisions and principles of the UNFCCC. Avoiding protectionism and strengthening the multilateral trading system We stand by the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) mandate. However, it is clear that we will not complete the DDA if we continue to conduct negotiations as we have in the past. We recognize the progress achieved so far. To contribute to confidence, we need to pursue in 2012 fresh, credible approaches to furthering negotiations, including the issues of concern for Least Developed Countries and, where they can bear fruit, the remaining elements of the DDA mandate. We direct our Ministers to work on such approaches at the upcoming Ministerial meeting in Geneva and also to engage into discussions on challenges and opportunities to the multilateral trading system in a globalised economy and to report back by the Mexico Summit. Addressing the challenges of development In order to meet the Millennium Development Goals, we stress the pivotal role of ODA. Aid commitments made by developed countries should be met. Emerging countries will engage or continue to extend their level of support to other developing countries. We also agree that, over time, new sources of funding need to be found to address development needs and climate change. We discussed a set of options for innovative financing highlighted by Mr Bill Gates. Some of us have implemented or are prepared to explore some of these options. We acknowledge the initiatives in some of our countries to tax the financial sector for various purposes, including a financial transaction tax, inter alia to support development. Intensifying our Fight against Corruption We have made significant progress in implementing the Action Plan on combating corruption, promoting market integrity and supporting a clean business environment. We underline the need for swift implementation of a strong international legislative framework, the adoption of national measures to prevent and combat corruption and foreign bribery, the strengthening of international cooperation in fighting corruption and the development of joint initiatives between the public and the private sector.

Some of the feedbacks to the summit:Its shameful that measures that could have helped pull millions of people out of poverty and contribute to global growth got ignored or paid lip-service, said Oxfam spokesperson Luc Lampriere. But there are genuine rays of hope like a Financial Transaction Tax that could benefit the poorest people in the world. President Sarkozy laid the G20 table with practical measures to rein in skyrocketing food prices, but the leaders left most of them on their plate, Lampriere said. The big losers were the nearly one billion poor hungry people who the G20 could have helped by reforming the broken food system.