23-24 July 2016, Chengdu, China

1. We met in Chengdu to review our efforts in responding to key economic challenges, as well as the progress we made since the beginning of this year. We worked closely in the spirit of cooperation and solidarity and achieved tangible outcomes on our agenda, which will be delivered for our Leaders’ review at their Hangzhou Summit.

2. The global economic recovery continues but remains weaker than desirable. Meanwhile, the benefits of growth need to be shared more broadly within and among countries to promote inclusiveness. The global economic environment is challenging and downside risks persist, highlighted by fluctuating commodity prices, and low inflation in many economies. Financial market volatility remains high, and geopolitical conflicts, terrorism, and refugee flows continue to complicate the global economic environment. In addition, the outcome of the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU adds to the uncertainty in the global economy. Members of the G20 are well positioned to proactively address the potential economic and financial consequences stemming from the UK referendum. In the future, we hope to see the UK as a close partner of the EU.

3. We are taking actions to foster confidence and support growth. In light of recent developments, we reiterate our determination to use all policy tools – monetary, fiscal and structural – individually and collectively to achieve our goal of strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth. Monetary policy will continue to support economic activity and ensure price stability, consistent with central banks’ mandates, but monetary policy alone cannot lead to balanced growth. Underscoring the essential role of structural reforms, we emphasize that our fiscal strategies are equally important to support our common growth objectives. We are using fiscal policy flexibly and making tax policy and public expenditure more growth-friendly, including by prioritizing high-quality investment, while enhancing resilience and ensuring debt as a share of GDP is on a sustainable path. Furthermore, we will continue to explore policy options, tailored to country circumstances, that the G20 countries may undertake as necessary to support growth and respond to potential risks including balance sheet vulnerability. We reiterate that excess volatility and disorderly movements in exchange rates can have adverse implications for economic and financial stability. We will consult closely on exchange markets. We reaffirm our previous exchange rate commitments, including that we will refrain from competitive devaluations and we will not target our exchange rates for competitive purposes. We will resist all forms of protectionism. We will carefully calibrate and clearly communicate our macroeconomic and structural policy actions to reduce policy uncertainty, minimize negative spillovers and promote transparency.

4. As regards structural reform, we endorse the Enhanced Structural Reform Agenda prepared by the Framework Working Group (FWG), and commend the OECD, the IMF and other relevant international organizations (IOs) for their valuable inputs. We take note that the choice and design of structural reforms are consistent with countries’ economic conditions. Based on the nine priority areas of structural reforms agreed in April, we have developed and agreed upon a set of guiding principles, which will provide high-level and useful guidance to members, while allowing them to account for their specific national circumstances. We have also agreed upon a set of indicators which will be further enhanced over time to help monitor and assess our efforts and progress with structural reforms and challenges. We are committed to implementing and improving over time the Enhanced Structural Reform Agenda, and call on the IOs to provide continuous support. We are making further progress towards the implementation of our growth strategies, as is indicated by the preliminary assessment of the IOs as well as results from our enhanced peer reviews, but much more needs to be done. Swift and full implementation of the growth strategies remains key to support economic growth and the collective growth ambition set by the Brisbane Summit. Furthermore, to strengthen our efforts, we are updating our growth strategies to include new and adjusted macroeconomic and structural policy measures that can provide mutually-supportive benefits to growth. Our updated growth strategies and an accountability report on progress against our growth ambition will be finalized before the Hangzhou Summit. We underscore the role of open trade policies and a strong and secure global trading system in promoting inclusive global economic growth, and we will make further efforts to revitalize global trade and lift investment. We will also strive to reduce excessive imbalances and promote greater inclusiveness in our pursuit of economic growth.

5. We recognize that the structural problems, including excess capacity in some industries, exacerbated by a weak global economic recovery and depressed market demand, have caused a negative impact on trade and workers. We recognize that excess capacity in steel and other industries is a global issue which requires collective responses. We also recognize that subsidies and other types of support from governments or government-sponsored institutions can cause market distortions and contribute to global excess capacity and therefore require attention. We commit to enhance communication and cooperation, and take effective steps to address the challenges so as to enhance market function and encourage adjustment. The G20 steelmaking economies will participate in the global community’s actions to address global excess capacity, including by participating in the OECD Steel Committee meeting scheduled for September 8-9, 2016 and discussing the feasibility of forming a Global Forum as a cooperative platform for dialogue and information sharing on global capacity developments and on policies and support measures taken by governments.

6. To support our common growth objectives and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we reaffirm our commitment to promote investment with focus on infrastructure in terms of both quantity and quality. Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have a unique role in supporting infrastructure investment. We have had effective communications with MDBs and called on them to take joint actions to support infrastructure investment as well as catalyze private investment. In this regard, we welcome the commitments made in the “Joint Declaration of Aspirations on Actions to Support Infrastructure Investment” by 11 MDBs which includes their announcements of quantitative ambitions for high-quality infrastructure projects within their respective institutional mandates as well as their efforts to maximize the quality of infrastructure projects, strengthen project pipelines, collaborate further among existing and new MDBs, strengthen the enabling environment for infrastructure investment in developing countries, as well as catalyze private resources. We stress the importance of quality infrastructure investment, which aims to ensure economic efficiency in view of life-cycle cost, safety, resilience against natural disaster, job creation, capacity building, and transfer of expertise and know-how, while addressing social and environmental impacts and aligning with economic and development strategies. We welcome the MDB Response to the G20 MDB Balance Sheet Optimization Action Plan and call for further implementation of the Action Plan. Greater inter-connectivity is a defining demand of the 21st century global economy and key to promote sustainable development and shared prosperity. We launch the Global Infrastructure Connectivity Alliance to enhance the synergy and cooperation among various infrastructure connectivity programs in a holistic way. We ask the World Bank Group (WBG) to serve as the secretariat of the Alliance, working closely with the Global Infrastructure Hub (GIH), OECD, other MDBs, and interested G20 members to support its activities. We endorse the G20/OECD Guidance Note on Diversification of Financial Instruments for Infrastructure and SMEs and we welcome the Annotated Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Risk Allocation Matrices completed by the GIH to help developing countries better assess infrastructure risks. We support the effective implementation of the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance and G20/OECD High-level Principles on SME Financing. In particular, we look forward to the revision of the assessment methodology of the G20/OECD Principles of the Corporate Governance, which will be informed by an FSB peer review on corporate governance.

7.We support the ongoing efforts undertaken by IOs to provide a coordinated and effective response that will support refugees and their host communities in developing and middle-income countries across all regions and income levels, building on existing and proposed facilities, and consistent with their mandates and comparative advantages. We look forward to further steps in the near future. We note the ongoing discussion within the WBG on considering a global crisis response platform. We call for strengthening humanitarian and development assistance, refugee resettlement and scaling up the support through relevant IOs for refugees and their host communities.

8. We endorse the recommendations towards further strengthening the international financial architecture (IFA) developed by the IFA Working Group. Building on the ongoing work by relevant IOs, we will continue to improve the analysis and monitoring of capital flows and management of risks stemming from excessive capital flow volatility. We look forward to the IMF’s review of country experiences and emerging issues in handling capital flows by year-end. We note the ongoing work on the review of the OECD Code of Liberalization of Capital Movements. We support work to further strengthen the Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN), with a strong, quota-based and adequately resourced IMF at its center, equipped with a more effective toolkit, and with more effective cooperation between the IMF and Regional Financing Arrangements (RFAs), respecting their mandates. In this respect, we welcome the upcoming CMIM-IMF joint test run and call for further work regarding the IMF’s lending toolkit. We look forward to the completion of the 15th General Review of Quotas, including a new quota formula, by the 2017 Annual Meetings. We reaffirm that any realignment under the 15th review in quota shares is expected to result in increased shares for dynamic economies in line with their relative positions in the world economy, and hence likely in the share of emerging market and developing countries as a whole. We support the WBG to implement its shareholding review according to the agreed roadmap and timeframe, with the objective of achieving equitable voting power over time. We underline the importance of promoting sound and sustainable financing practices and will continue to improve debt restructuring processes. We support the continued effort to incorporate the enhanced contractual clauses into sovereign bonds. We support the Paris Club’s discussion of a range of sovereign debt issues, the ongoing work of the Paris Club, as the principal international forum for restructuring official bilateral debt, towards the broader inclusion of emerging creditors, and welcome the admission of the Republic of Korea to the Paris Club. We welcome China’s regular participation in Paris Club meetings and intention to play a more constructive role, including further discussions on potential membership. We support examination of the broader use of the SDR, such as broader publication of accounts and statistics in the SDR and the potential issuance of SDR-denominated bonds, as a way to enhance resilience. We call for further work by the IOs to support the development of local currency bond markets, including intensifying efforts to support low-income countries. We will extend the IFA Working Group’s mandate into 2017.