G20 spotlights risks of policy delays, disasters

Finance and central bank chiefs from G20 member countries are expected to wrap up their two days of meetings in Mexico City Monday with no new agreements, but more mechanisms for reducing risks. Participants and observers said the U.S. financial cliff and Europe's debt crisis continued to dominate the talks, with countries concerned that the United States and the European Union are not acting with the urgency needed to spur growth and minimize risks. Tuesday's U.S. presidential elections were given as the main reason lawmakers there have yet to decide on how to tackle a series of spending cuts and tax increases set to take effect at the beginning of 2013. In fact, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner failed to attend the weekend gathering. Also by the end of the year, countries are to adopt banking regulation, known as the Basel III accords, but many nations and banks have said they need more time. A final statement Monday is expected to express members' concerns over these delays, but include no new decisions. The G20 meeting did, however, make some headway in the area of disaster risk management, a timely topic in the immediate wake of Superstorm Sandy, the most devastating storm to have hit the U.S. eastern coast in at least a century. At a conference Sunday, led by World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and the Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Jose Angel Gurria, officials unveiled a "manual of best practices" to "increase financial resilience" to natural and manmade disasters. The document, prepared by the OECD and supported by the World Bank and the United Nations, "is designed to help finance ministers and other authorities develop financial strategies for disaster risk management," said Gurria. Stressing the importance of the disaster policy framework, Yong Kim said "once-in-a-lifetime extreme weather events are now expected to occur annually." The weekend meeting marks Mexico's last as president of the G20, with Russia taking over the rotating presidency at the end of the year.