By Wendell Roelf and Leika Kihara
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) -A meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations failed on Thursday to come up with a joint communique, with a “chair’s summary” issued by the South African host reiterating a commitment to resisting protectionism.
This week’s G20 talks in Cape Town were overshadowed by the absence of several key finance chiefs and foreign aid cuts by major economies like the United States and Britain.
Finance ministers from the United States, China, India and Japan, among others, skipped the meeting, which was held against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions over trade, the Ukraine war and how to tackle climate change.
The summary said members had “reiterated the commitment to resisting protectionism,” and “supported a rules-based, non-discriminatory, fair, open, inclusive, equitable, sustainable and transparent multilateral trading system.”
South Africa’s Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said he was “not happy” the G20 meeting could not issue a joint communique.
The chair’s summary has become a feature of multilateral meetings in which participants do not reach a formal consensus.
On the global economy, it noted growth patterns varied across economies and said various risks and trends had been discussed.
“Inflation has receded, supported by well-calibrated monetary policies and the unwinding of supply shocks, although progress has varied across countries,” the summary said.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara, Kopano Gumbi, Wendell Roelf, Duncan Miriri and Andy Bruce;Additional reporting by Tannur Anders and Sfundo Parakozov;Writing by Alexander Winning and Tim Cocks)
