Finance ministers call for international support for vulnerable economies

Commonwealth finance ministers concluded their annual meeting in Castries, St Lucia, on 8 October 2008 with a call for the international community to support countries adversely affected by the food and fuel crises, which may be further compounded by the current financial turbulence around the globe.

During the three-day meeting, ministers discussed the impact of food and fuel prices on their respective countries, but also the global financial crisis which is affecting them all, in different ways.

Developing countries are likely to suffer badly with less growth and less access to finance, and progress towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals could be halted or even reversed.

Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith called for regional co-operation to protect countries from the effects of the instability, which had seen world markets tumble during the past week. He added that global regulation needs to recognise that non-systemic financial centres will be affected, too.

In a Communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the ministers noted the need to support the agricultural sector to increase food production, and to explore new sources of energy supply.

They specifically asked the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to strengthen their efforts to provide support and advice at both country and global levels in handling the immediate impact.

During their meeting, ministers agreed to form a representative ministerial group to conduct consultations across the Commonwealth to create consensus on the process, objectives and purpose of reform of the World Bank and IMF.

Ministers also recognised that the added and practical value of the Commonwealth's discussions on reform of international institutions would be in fostering an inclusive discussion of all governments, which would need to be carefully synchronised with existing reform efforts taking place already within the World Bank and IMF.

They endorsed the principles of legitimacy, fair representation, responsiveness, flexibility, transparency and accountability of the two Bretton Woods institutions, and emphasised that finance ministers should play an important role in the process.

Click here to read the full Communiqué

Key Links:

• Finance Ministers meet in St Lucia