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G20 finance chiefs meet as Indonesia warns of energy, food catastrophe
The two-day meeting Bali started under the shadow of a war that has roiled markets, spiked food prices and stoked breakneck inflation, a week after Moscow's top diplomat walked out of talks with the forum's foreign ministers.
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Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati (center) delivers a speech during the opening of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, on July 15, 2022.
(AFP/Made Nagi)
Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs from top economies met in Bali Friday for talks on the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with the host warning them failure to tackle energy and food crises would be catastrophic.
The two-day meeting Bali started under the shadow of a war that has roiled markets, spiked food prices and stoked breakneck inflation, a week after Moscow's top diplomat walked out of talks with the forum's foreign ministers.
In her opening remarks, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati called on ministers to work together with a spirit of "cooperation, collaboration and consensus" because "the world is watching" for solutions.
"The cost of our failure is more than we can afford," she told delegates. "The humanitarian consequences for the world and for many low-income countries would be catastrophic."
Top global finance figures, including US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, will discuss the rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. But the impact of the Ukraine war –- weighing on an already brittle global recovery –- will top the agenda.
A day before the meeting, Yellen set the tone, calling Russia's war in Ukraine the "greatest challenge" to the global economy and saying members of Putin's government "have no place" at the talks.
"We are seeing negative spillover effects from that war in every corner of the world, particularly with respect to higher energy prices and rising food insecurity," she said.
