RIYADH — Finance ministers and central bank governors (FMCBGs) of the Group of 20 will meet under the Saudi presidency on Friday to discuss mechanisms to tackle the problem of developing countries’ unsustainable debts.

The meeting will be chaired by Saudi Arabia's Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan and Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority Dr. Ahmed Alkholifey.

Participants in the meeting will continue to focus on supporting vulnerable countries in their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and its health, social and economic impacts.

Recognizing that members are in different stages of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and that the global economic outlook continues to evolve, financial leaders on Oct. 14, 2020, endorsed updates to the G20 action plan to support the global economy in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This included extending the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) by six months to 2021 and examining, by the time of the 2021 IMF/WBG Spring Meetings, if the economic and financial situation requires the extension of the DSSI for another six months.

Additionally, given the scale of the COVID-19 crisis, the significant debt vulnerabilities, and deteriorating outlook in many low-income countries, G20 finance chiefs recognized in their previous meeting that debt treatments beyond the DSSI might be required on a case-by-case basis.

In this context, they agreed in principle on a “Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the DSSI” to be discussed in this extraordinary meeting. —SG