The Banking Executive, Issue 155, November 2021

2021 G20 Rome Summit THE DECLARATION The below declaration is the final outcome of an intense year of nego- tiations and events organized in the framework of the Italian G20 Presi- dency. 1. We, the Leaders of the G20, met in Rome on October 30th and 31st, to address today's most pressing global challenges and to converge upon common efforts to recover better from the COVID-19 crisis and enable sus- tainable and inclusive growth in our Countries and across the world. As the premier forum for international economic cooper- ation, we are committed to over- coming the global health and economic crisis stemming from the pandemic, which has af- fected billions of lives, dramati- cally hampered progress towards the achievement of the Sustain- able Development Goals and disrupted global supply chains and international mobility. With this in mind, we express our pro- found gratitude to the health and care professionals, frontline workers, international organiza- tions and scientific community for their relentless efforts to cope with COVID-19. 2. Underlining the crucial role of multilateralism in finding shared, effective solutions, we have agreed to further strengthen our common response to the pan- demic, and pave the way for a global recovery, with particular regard to the needs of the most vulnerable. We have taken deci- sive measures to support Coun- tries most in need to overcome the pandemic, improve their re- silience and address critical chal- lenges such as ensuring food security and environmental sus- tainability. We have agreed upon a shared vision to combat cli- mate change, and taken impor- tant steps towards the achievement of gender equality. We have also further advanced in our common efforts to ensure that the benefits of digitalization are shared broadly, safely and contribute to reducing inequali- ties. 3. Global economy. Over 2021, global economic activity has been recovering at a solid pace, thanks to the roll-out of vaccines and continued policy support. However, the recovery remains highly divergent across and within countries, and exposed to downside risks, in particular the possible spread of new variants of COVID-19 and uneven vacci- nation paces. We remain deter- mined to use all available tools for as long as required to address the adverse consequences of the pandemic, in particular on those most impacted, such as women, youth, and informal and low- skilled workers, and on inequal- ities. We will continue to sustain the recovery, avoiding any pre- mature withdrawal of support measures, while preserving fi- nancial stability and long-term fiscal sustainability and safe- guarding against downside risks and negative spill-overs. Central banks are monitoring current price dynamics closely. They will act as needed to meet their man- dates, including price stability, while looking through inflation pressures where they are transi- tory and remaining committed to clear communication of policy stances. We remain vigilant to the global challenges that are im- pacting on our economies, such as disruptions in supply chains. We will work together to monitor and address these issues as our economies recover and to sup- port the stability of the global economy. We commit to ad- vancing the forward-looking agenda set in the G20 Action Plan as updated in April 2021 and we welcome the fourth Progress Report. We reaffirm the commitments on exchange rates made by our Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in April 2021. 4. Health. Recognizing that vac- cines are among the most impor- tant tools against the pandemic, and reaffirming that extensive COVID-19 immunization is a global public good, we will ad- vance our efforts to ensure timely, equitable and universal access to safe, affordable, quality and effective vaccines, therapeu- tics and diagnostics, with partic- ular regard to the needs of low- and middle-income countries. To help advance toward the global goals of vaccinating at least 40 percent of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and 70 percent by mid-2022, as rec- ommended by the World Health Organization (WHO)'s global vaccination strategy, we will take steps to help boost the supply of vaccines and essential medical products and inputs in develop- ing countries and remove rele- vant supply and financing constraints. We ask our Health Ministers to monitor progress to- ward this end and to explore ways to accelerate global vacci- nation as necessary. 5. We will reinforce global strate- gies to support research and de- velopment as well as to ensure their production and swift and equitable distribution world- wide, also by strengthening sup- ply chains and by expanding and diversifying global vaccine man- ufacturing capacity at local and regional level, while promoting vaccine acceptance, confidence and fighting disinformation. To this end, we commit to refrain from WTO inconsistent export restrictions and to increase trans- parency and predictability in the delivery of vaccines. We reiterate our support to all pillars of the ACT-Accelerator, including COVAX, and will continue to im- prove its effectiveness. We sup- port the extension of ACT-A's ISSUE 155 NOVEMBER 2021 the BANKING EXECUTIVE 37