Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, the Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Development Committee, attended the meeting of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors which was held in Washington DC along with the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The communiqué issued after the meeting stressed that the global recovery was broadening and becoming more self-sustained. However, it warned that events in some Middle-East-North African countries and in Japan had increased economic uncertainty and tensions in energy prices. The communiqué noted there was adequate spare capacity to meet global energy demand.
The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors agreed on a set of indicative guidelines that complete the first step of their work to address persistently large imbalances. The second step of this process was launched with an in-depth assessment of the nature of these imbalances and the root causes of impediments to adjustment. Based on this analysis, they will ascertain for their next meeting the corrective and preventive measures that will form the 2011 action plan to ensure strong, sustainable and balanced growth, to be discussed during the upcoming G20 Cannes Summit.
To strengthen the international monetary system, they agreed to focus their work, in the short term, on assessing developments in global liquidity. They also welcomed efforts addressing excessive price volatility in food and agricultural markets.