Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged global financial leaders to focus on the world’s “most vulnerable citizens” as he inaugurated a Group of 20 (G-20) meeting on February 24.
In his address to the two-day meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors at the Nandi Hills resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru, Modi said the COVID-19 pandemic and “rising geo-political tensions in different parts of the world” had led to unsustainable debt levels in several countries, disruptions to global supply chains and threats to food and energy security. He added that stability, confidence and growth must be brought back to the world economy.
The meeting comes amid signs that the global outlook has improved from the last G20 summit in October, when a number of economies were on the brink of recession amid energy and food price spikes caused by the war. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen highlighted the improvement, saying the global economy “is in a better place today than many predicted just a few months ago.” He attributed the improvement in part to cooperation among G-20 central banks and governments over the past year in taking strong action to suppress inflation. He called for more such efforts to mitigate other global challenges such as food shortage.
