Finance Ministers: healthy prospects for APEC despite global headwinds
APEC Finance Ministers concluded their meeting today in Moscow by issuing a joint statement on advancing policies to make the financial sector more balanced and inclusive in the Asia-Pacific region.
The joint statement provides guidance for helping APEC economies to improve fiscal sustainability, in particular, with attention to public finance governance and the need to closely monitor vulnerabilities stemming from build-up of excessive private debt. It also puts forward concrete initiatives for improving member economies' strategies for financial literacy and strengthening natural disaster risk management.
The consensus among APEC Finance Ministers was that these approaches can collectively mitigate immediate global and regional challenges within the sector and reinvigorate growth, while addressing structural issues to put the financial sector on more solid footing in the longer-term.
The ongoing debt crisis and instability in global markets have slowed economic development in APEC economies but there is dynamism in the region, said Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov who chaired the meeting.
“We meet at a time when the global financial crisis has been going for three years,” he said. “Today, we are going to analyse how to counter these trends.”
Ministers considered the work that has been under way at APEC meetings throughout the year, including fiscal sustainability as a factor of economic growth; financial education; and the fiscal response to natural disasters.
“The economies of APEC are the most dynamic in the world.” acknowledged Siluanov. “Against the backdrop of uncertainty, APEC members look relatively healthy, the prospects are better for them and they are on a more positive trend than the global economy as a whole.”
“The steps we are discussing today will be able to mitigate the threat of the second wave of the economic crisis and create a foundation for sustained economic growth,” he added.
The International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the Asian Development Bank briefed ministers on the state of the global economy. They concurred that global growth has suffered setbacks but that there are signs of stabilization, particularly in the APEC region.
The results of the APEC Finance Ministerial Meeting will be reviewed next week during the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting on 8-9 September 2012 in Vladivostok, Russia.
“APEC is a good place to coordinate this policy and we will forward our recommendations to the Leaders who are meeting in Vladivostok in September,” concluded Siluanov.
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