Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will likely to continue hampering efforts by global financial leaders to chart a unified path forward for the global economy.
(Bloomberg) — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will likely to continue hampering efforts by global financial leaders to chart a unified path forward for the global economy.
As it grinds into its second year, disagreements over the war have thrown a wrench into the usual mechanisms of policy consensus at the Group of 20, which represents about 85% of global gross domestic product, and the International Monetary Fund, the top global crisis lender.
At their meetings this week in Washington, G-20 finance ministers will likely again fail to issue a communique, continuing the discord faced by the group since the invasion last February, according to people familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified. A similar issue faces the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the IMF’s main advisory panel known as the IMFC, they said.
For the G-20, the traditional consensus statement isn’t expected when their meetings wrap up Thursday on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s Spring Meetings because of disagreements on how to refer to the conflict.
Such statements — which usually lay out what the group sees as the biggest challenges for the global economy and how to address them — often involve tricky negotiations. But the war has made agreement all but impossible, with Russia and China rejecting almost all efforts to address the conflict.
The likely outcome for the G-20 will be another “chair’s summary,” which India would issue because it holds the forum’s presidency this year. The last meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs — which took place in in Bengaluru, India, in February — ended with only a chair’s summary as well.
At the end of the February meeting, Russia and China disagreed with two paragraphs on the war that had been cleared by all participants in November.
Read more: Russia’s War Means G-20 Finance Meeting Ends Without Communique
That February outcome was a retreat from a joint statement agreed by all G-20 members at November’s leaders’ summit in Bali, Indonesia.
The standoff continued at a meeting of G-20 foreign minsters in March, which also ended without consensus after China and Russia refused to join other members in a statement in which most of them condemned Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The IMFC’s last meeting in October also ended with a chair’s message because of objections by Russia.
–With assistance from Jorge Valero.
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