SINGAPORE - Finance ministers of the world's 20 largest economies and their key partners on Wednesday agreed on a plan to suspend debt service payments for the world's poorest countries as the global economy battles the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Saudi Arabia holds the rotating chairmanship of the G-20 this year, as the group formed in the wake of the 2008/2009 Global Financial Crisis faces the greatest challenge to the world economy since then. The meeting was the third in as many weeks to discuss the pandemic, underscoring the urgency of the G-20's task in bringing countries together to take coordinated action, Mr Heng wrote on Facebook."In better circumstances, our meeting would have been held in Washington DC at around this time."
While the top priority is to contain the spread of the virus, the economic impact must be decisively dealt with, said Mr Heng, who is also Singapore's Finance Minister.