Ralph G. Recto Secretary of Finance

February 21, 2024 PICC Manila

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Officials and representatives from G-24 member countries, distinguished guests from our international financial partner institutions, and colleagues from the G-24 Secretariat: Good morning.

On behalf of the Philippine Government, I extend a warm welcome to all G-24 delegates to Manila.

It is an honor for us to host this important meeting, where we come together to tackle the urgent challenges confronting our countries today.

We are at a critical juncture in history where heightened global cooperation and scaled-up support from international financial institutions have never been more urgent than it is now.

Prior to the pandemic, the global economy was on a trajectory of robust and steady growth, with an average expansion of 3.1 percent.

By the end of 2024, we had envisioned being halfway through a decade of transformative development—a time when we aimed to end extreme poverty and hunger while cutting greenhouse gas emissions by almost half, alongside with other goals.

Yet, COVID-19 struck the world and brought the global economy to a standstill.

Countries were compelled to marshall additional financial resources to boost the healthcare system and expedite the procurement of vaccines.

We needed to support the recovery of the vulnerable sectors hardest hit by the contagion.

All these, while maintaining investments in infrastructure and human capital development to sustain growth.

The pandemic exposed our vulnerabilities and left economies, particularly middle and low-income countries, with constrained fiscal resources and mounting debt burdens.

The challenges did not end there. As we strive for sustainable recovery, the lingering effects of COVID-19 continue to loom over the post-pandemic world.

Economies find themselves in a post-COVID landscape with little to no fiscal buffer amid tighter credit conditions and higher costs of borrowing.

Meanwhile, the impacts of climate change are worsening, disproportionately affecting vulnerable countries as efforts for mitigation and adaptation continue to lag behind.

Global trade faces continued strain due to geopolitical tensions, resulting in increased imbalanced trade deficits and a rising inflationary environment.

All these headwinds persist while countries like ours face the dilemma of achieving fiscal consolidation to restore pre-COVID levels of growth and address widening inequality and food insecurity.

The most recent report from the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects indicates that economies worldwide are expected to experience slower growth in 2024 and 2025 compared to the pre-COVID era.

Global growth is forecasted to decline for the third year in a row, reaching 2.4 percent in 2024 and 2.7 percent in 2025—significantly lower than the pre-pandemic average of 3.1 percent.

We are witnessing the weakest global growth in any half-decade since the 1990s, with one in every four developing countries now poorer than prior to the pandemic.

Any slowdown in global economic performance will surely hit developing economies hard. This economic stagnation threatens the peace and prosperity of our people worldwide.

We have now reached a critical threshold. Without decisive and major corrective actions to protect our hard-won gains, the developing world is at the risk of falling even further behind.

This particular moment calls for more responsive and strong-willed international financial institutions.

I urge the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other international partners to redouble their efforts in helping developing countries mitigate and reverse these factors that threaten our growth prospects.

Traditional interventions are no longer sufficient. We need bold and innovative solutions to help developing economies sustain productivity, boost long-term growth prospects, and increase resilience to economic shocks.

Through this G-24 meeting, the Philippines seeks to facilitate open dialogue and stronger collaboration with international financial institutions and member countries to build up our respective capacities to weather these global challenges.

The Philippine chairmanship’s overarching theme, “Building Resilience to Meet Global Challenges,” will guide discussions in the technical group meetings in the next two days.

Our goal is to sharpen both our fiscal and monetary toolkits to ensure financial stability amid global uncertainties.

As it stands today, per-capita investment growth in 2023 and 2024 is projected to average a mere 3.7 percent—just half of the average seen in the preceding two decades.

However, the World Bank suggests that if every developing nation were to achieve at least four percent per-capita investment growth for six consecutive years, there is a chance for us to regain lost momentum.

Thus, our discussions must center on crafting fiscal frameworks that promote fiscal consolidation, widen trade and financial flows, and cultivate a more favorable investment environment for the private sector.

Meanwhile, we must develop strategies to efficiently mobilize fiscal resources and prevent leakages as much as we can, not only to manage debt but to provide protection to our people in these difficult times.

We also need to explore ways on how we can effectively balance our growth and climate objectives. We need to devise innovative funding mechanisms for climate adaptation and mitigation aligned with our own national development priorities.

Finally, we must foster greater international cooperation to support debt sustainability initiatives.

These are urgent concerns on the table that demand our immediate action.

I trust that the deliberations of this technical group meeting will yield bold solutions and ideas that will benefit all of us and the future generations to come.

We must keep in mind that 2030 marks a universal deadline for all nations to make substantial progress in eradicating poverty, ending hunger, and protecting the environment.

With over half a decade remaining until 2030, there is enough opportunity for developing economies to reclaim lost momentum and make a powerful comeback if we unite in concerted action and adhere to fiscal discipline.

By collectively strengthening our macroeconomic fundamentals together, we can steer the global economy faster and further on the road to inclusive and irreversible growth.

Once again, I thank all of you for your time and commitment. I trust you will have a wonderful stay in Manila.