1

G20 Leaders Declaration

1. We, the Leaders of the G20, convened in Los Cabos on 18-19 June 2012.

2. We are united in our resolve to promote growth and jobs.

3. Since we last met, the global recovery has continued to face a number of challenges. Financial 

market tensions are high. External, fiscal and financial imbalances are still prevalent, having a 

major impact on growth and employment prospects and confidence. Clearly, the global economy 

remains vulnerable, with a negative impact on the everyday lives of people all over the world, 

affecting jobs, trade, development, and the environment.

4. We will act together to strengthen recovery and address financial market tensions.

5. We will work collectively to strengthen demand and restore confidence with a view to support 

growth and foster financial stability in order to create high quality jobs and opportunities for all of 

our citizens. We have agreed today on a coordinated Los Cabos Growth and Jobs Action Plan to 

achieve those goals. 

6. Euro Area members of the G20 will take all necessary policy measures to safeguard the integrity 

and stability of the area, improve the functioning of financial markets and break the feedback loop 

between sovereigns and banks. We look forward to the Euro Area working in partnership with the 

next Greek government to ensure they remain on the path to reform and sustainability within the 

Euro Area.

7. We are implementing our structural and regulatory reform agenda to enhance medium-term 

growth prospects and build more resilient financial systems. We remain committed to reduce 

imbalances by strengthening deficit countries’ public finances with sound and sustainable policies 

that take into account evolving economic conditions and, in countries with large current account 

surpluses, by strengthening domestic demand and moving toward greater exchange rate 

flexibility.

8. Despite the challenges we all face domestically, we have agreed that multilateralism is of even 

greater importance in the current climate, and remains our best asset to resolve the global 

economy's difficulties.

9. Recognizing the impact of the continuing crisis on developing countries, particularly low income 

countries, we will intensify our efforts to create a more conducive environment for development, 

including supporting infrastructure investment. Our policy actions will improve living conditions 

across the globe and protect the most vulnerable. In particular, by stabilizing global markets and 

promoting stronger growth, we will generate significant positive effects on development and 

poverty reduction across the globe.
2

Supporting economic stabilization and the global recovery

10. Strong, sustainable and balanced growth remains the top priority of the G20, as it leads to higher job 

creation and increases the welfare of people across the world. We are committed to adopting all 

necessary policy measures to strengthen demand, support global growth and restore confidence, 

address short and medium-term risks, enhance job creation and reduce unemployment, as reflected 

in the Los Cabos Growth and Jobs Action Plan (see Annex). We will implement all our commitments 

in a timely manner and rigorously monitor their implementation.

11. Against the background of renewed market tensions, Euro Area members of the G20 will take all 

necessary measures to safeguard the integrity and stability of the area, improve the functioning of 

financial markets and break the feedback loop between sovereigns and banks. We welcome the 

significant actions taken since the last summit by the Euro Area to support growth, ensure financial 

stability and promote fiscal responsibility as a contribution to the G20 framework for strong, 

sustainable and balanced growth. In this context, we welcome Spain’s plan to recapitalize its banking 

system and the Eurogroup’s announcement of support for Spain’s financial restructuring authority. 

The adoption of the Fiscal Compact and its ongoing implementation, together with growth-enhancing 

policies and structural reform and financial stability measures, are important steps towards greater 

fiscal and economic integration that lead to sustainable borrowing costs. The imminent establishment 

of the European Stability Mechanism is a substantial strengthening of the European firewalls. We fully 

support the actions of the Euro Area in moving forward with the completion of the Economic and 

Monetary Union. Towards that end, we support the intention to consider concrete steps towards a 

more integrated financial architecture, encompassing banking supervision, resolution and 

recapitalization, and deposit insurance. Euro Area members will foster intra Euro Area adjustment 

through structural reforms to strengthen competitiveness in deficit countries and to promote demand 

and growth in surplus countries. The European Union members of the G20 are determined to move 

forward expeditiously on measures to support growth including through completing the European 

Single Market and making better use of European financial means, such as the European Investment 

Bank (EIB), pilot project bonds, and structural and cohesion funds, for more targeted investment, 

employment, growth and competitiveness, while maintaining the firm commitment to implement fiscal 

consolidation to be assessed on a structural basis. We look forward to the Euro Area working in 

partnership with the next Greek government to ensure they remain on the path to reform and 

sustainability within the Euro Area.

12. All G20 members will take the necessary actions to strengthen global growth and restore confidence. 

Advanced economies will ensure that the pace of fiscal consolidation is appropriate to support the 

recovery, taking country-specific circumstances into account and, in line with the Toronto 

commitments, address concerns about medium term fiscal sustainability. Those advanced and 

emerging economies which have fiscal space will let the automatic fiscal stabilizers to operate taking 

into account national circumstances and current demand conditions. Should economic conditions 

deteriorate significantly further, those countries with sufficient fiscal space stand ready to coordinate 

and implement discretionary fiscal actions to support domestic demand, as appropriate. In many 

countries, higher investment in education, innovation and infrastructure can support the creation of 

jobs now while raising productivity and future growth prospects. Recognizing the need to pursue 

growth-oriented policies that support demand and recovery, the United States will calibrate the pace 

of its fiscal consolidation by ensuring that its public finances are placed on a sustainable long-run path 

so that a sharp fiscal contraction in 2013 is avoided.

13. Monetary policy will maintain price stability over the medium term while continuing to support the 

economic recovery. We will strengthen confidence in our banks, maintaining momentum on the 

financial sector reforms needed to safeguard our financial systems over the medium term while taking 

appropriate actions to protect credit channels and the integrity of the global payment and settlement 

systems. Healthy banks, with an ability to lend, are critical to the global recovery.
3

14. G20 members will remain vigilant of the evolution of oil prices and will stand ready to carry out 

additional actions as needed, including the commitment by producing countries to continue to 

ensure an appropriate level of supply consistent with demand. We welcome Saudi Arabia’s 

readiness to mobilize, as necessary, existing spare capacity to ensure adequate supply. We will 

also remain vigilant of other commodity prices.

15. A number of emerging markets are now also experiencing a slowdown in growth. In response, 

these countries are appropriately directing monetary and fiscal policies to support growth while 

ensuring stability and, in some cases, introducing new measures to boost their economies, in 

particular through strengthening domestic demand in a context of weaker external demand.

16. We welcome progress by countries with large current account surpluses to increase domestic 

demand and actions by countries with large current account deficits to increase national savings.

Emerging surplus economies will carry out further actions to increase domestic consumption, 

including by removing price and tax distortions and strengthening social safety nets, while 

advanced surplus economies or those with relatively weak private demand will promote domestic 

demand, notably through the liberalization of service sectors and the promotion of investment, 

including through the removal of inefficiencies. Higher national savings in countries with current 

account deficits will contribute to a lasting reduction in global imbalances. We recognize the 

special circumstances of large commodity exporters with regard to current account surpluses. We 

reaffirm our commitment to move more rapidly toward market-determined exchange rate systems 

and exchange rate flexibility to reflect underlying fundamentals, avoid persistent exchange rate 

misalignments, and refrain from competitive devaluation of currencies. We also welcome the 

commitment by China to allow market forces to play a larger role in determining movements in 

the Remnimbi (RMB), continue to reform its exchange rate regime, and to increase the 

transparency of its exchange rate policy.

17. All G20 members have put forward structural reform commitments to strengthen and sustain 

global demand, foster job creation, contribute to global rebalancing and increase growth potential. 

These include product market reforms to increase competition, measures to stabilize the housing 

sector, labor market reforms to boost competitiveness and employment, as well as steps to 

strengthen social safety nets in a way that is fiscally responsible, advance tax reform to raise 

productivity, increase investment in infrastructure, and promote inclusive green growth and 

sustainable development as appropriate to country circumstances. We ask Finance Ministers and 

Central Bank Governors to consider ways in which the G20 can foster investment in infrastructure 

and ensure the availability of sufficient funding for infrastructure projects, including Multilateral 

Development Banks’ (MDBs) financing and technical support.

18. In all policy areas, we commit to minimize the negative spillovers on other countries of policies 

implemented for domestic purposes. We reaffirm our shared interest in a strong and stable 

international financial system. While capital flows can be beneficial to recipient economies, we 

reiterate that excess volatility of financial flows and disorderly movements in exchange rates have 

adverse implications for economic and financial stability.

19. Recognizing the importance of transparency and accountability in reinforcing credibility and 

confidence, we have agreed on the Los Cabos Accountability Assessment Framework that 

accompanies the Growth and Jobs Action Plan. This Framework establishes the procedures we 

will follow to report on progress in implementing our policy commitments. We welcome the first 

Accountability Report under this new framework. We task our Finance Ministers and Central Bank 

Governors to present the second Accountability Report for the Leaders’ Summit in St. Petersburg 

in 2013.
4

Employment and Social Protection

20. Quality employment is at the heart of our macroeconomic policies. Jobs with labor rights, social 

security coverage and decent income contribute to more stable growth, enhance social inclusion 

and reduce poverty. We therefore endorse the recommendations of our Labor and Employment 

Ministers to urgently combat unemployment through appropriate labor market measures and 

fostering the creation of decent work and quality jobs, particularly for youth and other vulnerable 

groups, who have been severely hit by the economic crisis. We reaffirm our commitment to youth 

to facilitate their access to quality jobs, which will boost their life prospects. We welcome the work 

of the G20 Task Force on Employment and extend its mandate for an additional year in the terms 

proposed by our Ministers. Consistent with the Los Cabos Growth and Jobs Action Plan, we 

consider that structural reforms, in full respect of the fundamental principles and rights at work, 

can play an important role in lifting economic growth to generate labor market opportunities,

mobility and jobs. We also commit to intensify our efforts to strengthen cooperation in education, 

skills development and training policies, including internship and on-the-job training, which

support a successful school-to-work transition.

21. Creating jobs and reducing unemployment, particularly among our youth and those most affected 

by the crisis, is central to all our countries. We welcome the report by the International Labour 

Organization (ILO), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 

International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank on boosting jobs and living standards in G20 

countries. We will continue to focus on measures to accelerate the pace of the recovery in jobs 

and the reduction in unemployment.

22. We recognize the importance of establishing nationally determined social protection floors. We 

will continue to foster inter-agency and international policy coherence, coordination, cooperation 

and knowledge sharing to assist low-income countries in capacity building for implementing 

nationally determined social protection floors. We ask international organizations to identify policy 

options with low-income countries on how to develop effective sustainable protection floors.

23. We commit to take concrete actions to overcome the barriers hindering women's full economic 

and social participation and to expand economic opportunities for women in G20 economies. We 

also express our firm commitment to advance gender equality in all areas, including skills training, 

wages and salaries, treatment in the workplace, and responsibilities in care-giving.

24. We ask our Labor Ministers to review progress made on this agenda and we welcome 

consultations with social partners. In this regard, we appreciate the contribution of the Business20 (B20) and Labor-20 (L20) to the process of the G20 under the Mexican Presidency.

25. We recognize the role of travel and tourism as a vehicle for job creation, economic growth and 

development, and, while recognizing the sovereign right of States to control the entry of foreign 

nationals, we will work towards developing travel facilitation initiatives in support of job creation, 

quality work, poverty reduction and global growth.

Trade

26. We are firmly committed to open trade and investment, expanding markets and resisting 

protectionism in all its forms, which are necessary conditions for sustained global economic 

recovery, jobs and development. We underline the importance of an open, predictable, rulesbased, transparent multilateral trading system and are committed to ensure the centrality of the 

World Trade Organization (WTO). 

27. Recognizing the importance of investment for boosting economic growth, we commit to 

maintaining a supportive business environment for investors.
5

28. We are deeply concerned about rising instances of protectionism around the world. Following up 

our commitment made in Cannes, we reaffirm our standstill commitment until the end of 2014

with regard to measures affecting trade and investment, and our pledge to roll back any new 

protectionist measure that may have arisen, including new export restrictions and WTOinconsistent measures to stimulate exports. We also undertake to notify in a timely manner trade 

and investment restrictive measures. We uphold the inventory and monitoring work of the WTO, 

OECD and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on trade and 

investment measures and encourage them to reinforce and deepen the work in these areas, 

consistent with their respective mandates.

29. We value the discussion held by our Trade Ministers in Puerto Vallarta on the relevance of 

regional and global value chains to world trade, recognizing their role in fostering economic 

growth, employment and development and emphasizing the need to enhance the participation of 

developing countries in such value chains. We encourage a deepening of these discussions in 

the WTO, UNCTAD and OECD within their respective mandates, and we call on them to 

accelerate their work on analyzing the functioning of global value chains and their relationship 

with trade and investment flows, development and jobs, as well as on how to measure trade 

flows, to better understand how our actions affect our countries and others, and to report on 

progress under Russia's Presidency.

30. In line with the Cannes Communiqué, we stand by the Doha Development Agenda mandate and 

reaffirm our commitment to pursue fresh, credible approaches to furthering trade negotiations 

across the board. We will continue to work towards concluding the Doha Round negotiations, 

including outcomes in specific areas where progress is possible, such as trade facilitation, and 

other issues of concern for least developed countries. We urge progress in streamlining WTO 

accession procedures for the world’s poorest countries. 

31. We support strengthening the WTO through improving the way it conducts its regular business, 

and its dispute settlement system. We also direct our representatives to further discussions on 

challenges and opportunities for the multilateral trading system in a globalized economy.

Strengthening the international financial architecture

32. We recognize the importance of effective global and regional safety nets. We welcome the firm 

commitments to increase the resources available to the IMF. This is the result of a broad 

international cooperative effort that includes a significant number of countries. The commitments 

exceed $450 billion and are in addition to the quota increase under the 2010 Reform. These 

resources will be available for the whole membership of the IMF, and not earmarked for any 

particular region. These resources, which qualify as reserve assets, would be channeled through 

bilateral loans and investments such as note purchase agreements to the IMF’s General 

Resources Account under the modalities which have been approved by the IMF Executive Board. 

This effort shows the G20 and the international community’s commitment to take the steps 

needed to safeguard global financial stability and enhance the IMF’s role in crisis prevention and 

resolution.

33. We reaffirm our commitment to implement in full the 2010 Quota and Governance Reform by the 

agreed date of the 2012 IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings. These reforms are crucial to 

enhancing the IMF’s legitimacy, relevance and effectiveness, and will support efforts to further 

strengthen Fund surveillance and to ensure that the IMF is adequately resourced to play its 

systemic role. As part of these reforms, we are committed to completing the comprehensive 

review of the quota formula, to address deficiencies and weaknesses in the current quota 

formula, by January 2013 and to complete the next general review of quotas by January 2014. 

We agree that the formula should be simple and transparent, consistent with the multiple roles of 
6

quotas, result in calculated shares that are broadly acceptable to the membership, and be 

feasible to implement based on timely, high quality and widely available data. We reaffirm that the 

distribution of quotas based on the formula should better reflect the relative weights of IMF 

members in the world economy, which have changed substantially in view of strong GDP growth 

in dynamic emerging markets and developing countries. We reaffirm the importance of continuing 

to protect the voice and representation of the poorest members of the IMF. We ask our Finance 

Ministers and Central Bank Governors to review progress on this issue when they meet in 

November.

34. We agreed that the current surveillance framework should be significantly enhanced, including 

through a better integration of bilateral and multilateral surveillance with a focus on global, 

domestic and financial stability, including spillovers from countries’ policies. We welcome the 

work of the IMF to advance considerations for a proposed integrated surveillance decision and 

commit to support the decision process. We underscore the importance of rigorous surveillance 

on exchange rate policies and support a more ample coverage of surveillance activities, where 

relevant, including global liquidity, capital flows, capital account measures, reserve and fiscal, 

monetary and financial sector policies that could have an impact on external stability. We 

welcome the IMF’s ongoing work to produce an external sector report, which would strengthen 

multilateral analysis and enhance the transparency of surveillance. We also recognize that 

political ownership and traction is critical to effective surveillance, and that the International 

Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) has a role in facilitating the active involvement of all 

IMF members. We look forward to substantial progress by the next IMF/World Bank Annual 

Meetings.

35. We welcome the interim progress report and look forward to the joint annual progress report to 

support the development of local currency bond markets to be prepared by the World Bank, 

Regional Development Banks, IMF, OECD and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). The 

full report will be presented at the November meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank 

Governors. This issue is of great importance to emerging markets and developing countries, 

recognizing that the liquidity, efficiency and operation of these markets are being challenged by 

the current global financial situation.

Reforming the financial sector and fostering financial inclusion

36. We welcome the progress report by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) on taking forward the G20 

commitments for strengthening financial stability and the FSB’s enhanced monitoring of 

implementation at the national level. We are committed to the timely, full and consistent 

implementation of agreed policies in order to support a stable and integrated global financial 

system and to prevent future crises.

37. We welcome the publication of the traffic lights scoreboard to track progress in the 

implementation of all our financial reform recommendations and pledge to take all necessary

actions to make progress in the areas where difficulties in policy development or implementation 

have been identified.

38. In particular, we recognize the substantial progress to date in the priority reform areas identified 

by the FSB’s Coordination Framework for Implementation Monitoring (CFIM): the Basel capital 

and liquidity framework; the framework for global systemically important financial institutions (GSIFIs), resolution regimes, over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives reforms, shadow banking, and 

compensation practices. We commit to complete work in these important areas to achieve full 

implementation of reforms.

39. We reaffirm our commitment that all standardized OTC derivative contracts should be traded on 

exchanges or electronic trading platforms, where appropriate, and cleared through central 
7

counterparties by end-2012, OTC derivative contracts should be reported to trade repositories 

and non-centrally cleared contracts should be subject to higher capital requirements. We 

welcome the FSB progress report on implementation. Now that substantial progress has been 

achieved in the four safeguards for a resilient and efficient global framework for central clearing, 

jurisdictions should rapidly finalize their decision-making and put in place the needed legislation

and regulations to meet the G20 commitment for central clearing. We acknowledge the progress 

made to develop the key principles to promote internationally consistent minimum standards for 

the margining of non-centrally cleared derivatives and encourage international standard setters to 

finalize the proposed global margin standards by the end of this year, to match the 

implementation deadline for other OTC derivatives reforms and for the Basel capital framework.

40. We welcome progress in implementing Basel II, 2.5 and III and urge jurisdictions to fully 

implement the standards according to the agreed timelines. We welcome the Basel Committee’s 

consultative proposals for a fundamental review of the market risk framework. We welcome the 

FSB’s progress report on the implementation of the principles and standards for sound 

compensation practices, reaffirm our commitment to ensure that these are followed and ask the 

FSB to continue its ongoing monitoring. 

41. We reiterate our commitment to make our national resolution regimes consistent with the FSB 

Key Attributes of Effective Resolution Regimes so that no bank or other financial institution is “too 

big to fail”. To this end, we also support the ongoing elaboration of recovery and resolution plans 

and institution-specific cross-border cooperation agreements for all G-SIFIs. We reiterate our 

commitment to strengthen the intensity and effectiveness of the supervision of SIFIs and ask the 

FSB to report on further progress in this area to the November 2012 G20 Finance Ministers and 

Central Bank Governors’ meeting.

42. We welcome progress on developing a set of principles as a common framework for the 

identification of, and policy measures relating to, domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs) 

and ask our Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to review recommendations in these 

areas at their meeting in November. We support continuing work for the strengthening of the 

oversight and regulation of the shadow banking system, and look forward to our Finance 

Ministers and Central Bank Governors reviewing recommendations in these areas at their 

meeting in November. We ask the FSB in consultation with the International Association of 

Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) to complete their work on identification and policy measures for 

global systemically important insurers by April 2013. Towards reducing systemic risk, we look 

forward to the preparation by the FSB in consultation with International Organization of Securities 

Commissions (IOSCO) of methodologies to identify other systemically important non-bank 

financial entities by end-2012 and call on Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems 

(CPSS) and IOSCO to continue their work on systemically important market infrastructures. We 

also ask the IAIS to continue its work to develop a common framework for the supervision of 

internationally active insurance groups by end-2013.

43. We call for accelerated progress by national authorities and standard setting bodies in ending the 

mechanistic reliance on credit ratings and encourage steps that would enhance transparency of 

and competition among credit rating agencies. We support continuing work to achieve 

convergence to a single set of high-quality accounting standards. We welcome IOSCO’s report 

on the functioning of the credit default swap markets and ask IOSCO to report on next steps by 

the November 2012 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting. 

44. We endorse the FSB recommendations regarding the framework for development of a global 

legal entity identifier (LEI) system for parties to financial transactions, with a global governance 

framework representing the public interest. The LEI system will be launched by March 2013 and 

we ask the FSB to report on implementation progress by the November 2012 Finance Ministers 
8

and Central Bank Governors’ meeting. We encourage global adoption of the LEI to support 

authorities and market participants in identifying and managing financial risks. 

45. We welcome the FSB study, prepared in coordination with the IMF and the World Bank, to 

identify potential unintended consequences of the agreed financial regulatory reforms for 

Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs). We encourage continued monitoring 

analysis and reporting by the FSB and dialogue among the FSB, standard-setters, international 

financial institutions and national authorities of EMDEs, to address material unintended 

consequences as appropriate without prejudice to our commitment to implement the agreed 

reforms. 

46. We endorse the recommendations and the revised FSB Charter for placing the FSB on an 

enduring organizational footing, with legal personality, strengthened governance, greater financial 

autonomy and enhanced capacity to coordinate the development and implementation of financial 

regulatory policies, while maintaining strong links with the BIS. We call for a full implementation of 

the recommendations by our next meeting and substantial progress by the November 2012 

Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting. We call on the FSB to continue to keep 

under review the structure of its representation. 

47. We welcome the ongoing work by the FSB on adherence to supervisory and regulatory 

information exchange and cooperation standards and look forward to a further public statement 

on progress under the initiative ahead of the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ 

meeting in November 2012. 

48. In the tax area, we reiterate our commitment to strengthen transparency and comprehensive 

exchange of information. We commend the progress made as reported by the Global Forum and 

urge all countries to fully comply with the standard and implement the recommendations identified 

in the course of the reviews, in particular the 13 jurisdictions whose framework does not allow 

them to qualify to phase 2 at this stage. We expect the Global Forum to quickly start examining 

the effectiveness of information exchange practices and to report to us and our finance ministers. 

We welcome the OECD report on the practice of automatic information exchange, where we will 

continue to lead by example in implementing this practice. We call on countries to join this 

growing practice as appropriate and strongly encourage all jurisdictions to sign the Multilateral 

Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance. We also welcome the efforts to enhance 

interagency cooperation to tackle illicit flows including the outcomes of the Rome meeting of the 

Oslo Dialogue. We reiterate the need to prevent base erosion and profit shifting and we will follow 

with attention the ongoing work of the OECD in this area.

49. We support the renewal of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) mandate, thereby sustaining 

global efforts to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation of 

weapons of mass destruction. G20 members also welcome the adoption of the revised FATF 

standards and look forward to their implementation. We welcome the progress made by FATF in 

identifying and monitoring high-risk jurisdictions with strategic Anti-Money Laundering/CounterTerrorist Financing (AML/CFT) deficiencies, using AML/CFT tools in the fight against corruption, 

improving transparency of corporate vehicles and increasing cooperation against tax crimes, 

addressing the risks posed by tax havens, as well as in increasing the reach and the 

effectiveness of AML/CFT measures by also considering financial inclusion efforts. We look 

forward to the completion in 2013 of the update of the FATF assessment process for the next 

round of mutual evaluations.

50. We welcome the progress made by the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) on 

implementing the five recommendations set out in its 2011 report and call on the GPFI to 

continue working towards their full implementation. We endorse the G20 Basic Set of financial 
9

inclusion indicators developed by the GPFI. Recognizing the key role that SMEs play in economic 

development, and poverty reduction, we welcome the launch of the SME Finance Compact that 

will support developing innovative models and approaches to address the specific access to 

finance challenges and constraints faced by developing countries with regards to SME finance. 

We welcome the forthcoming GPFI conference on standard setting bodies and financial inclusion 

as a means of helping to create an enabling regulatory environment, and we call on the GPFI to 

report progress to our Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in November. Finally, we 

support the ongoing effort to create a fourth GPFI subgroup that will focus on consumer 

protection and financial literacy issues.

51. We acknowledge the efforts of those G20 and non-G20 countries committed to national 

coordination platforms and strategies for financial inclusion under the “G20 Financial Inclusion 

Peer Learning Program” and encourage similar efforts to advance effective implementation of the 

G20 Principles for Innovative Financial Inclusion such as the commitments to concrete actions to 

promote financial inclusion made by developing and emerging countries under the Maya 

Declaration, recognizing the ongoing efforts and the support by the World Bank Group and the 

Alliance for Financial Inclusion, and other stakeholders including the United Nations (UN), and 

bilateral donors to foster financial inclusion.

52. On financial education, we endorse the OECD/International Network on Financial Education 

(INFE) High Level Principles on National Strategies for Financial Education, and call on the 

OECD/INFE and the World Bank in cooperation with the GPFI to deliver further tools to promote 

financial education, with a progress report to the next Summit. For advancing the financial 

consumer protection agenda, we take note of the discussion on the Statutes of the International 

Financial Consumer Protection Network (FinCoNet) and on the issues of formal structure and 

financial support to ensure the exchange of best practices. We also endorse the Action Plan 

presented by the G20/OECD Task Force on Financial Consumer Protection to develop effective 

approaches to support the implementation of the High Level Principles on Financial Consumer 

Protection, and look forward to an update report by the Leaders’ Summit in St. Petersburg in 

2013.

53. We recognize the need for women and youth to gain access to financial services and financial 

education, ask the GPFI, the OECD/INFE, and the World Bank to identify barriers they may face 

and call for a progress report to be delivered by the next Summit.

54. We welcome the launch of the Mexico Financial Inclusion Challenge: Innovative Solutions for 

Unlocking Access, a call for innovations that address barriers to financial inclusion through the 

creation of valuable, affordable, secure, and comprehensive financial services.

Enhancing food security and addressing commodity price volatility

55. The Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture adopted by the Ministers of Agriculture in 

2011 underlined that to feed a world population expected to exceed 9.3 billion by 2050, 

agricultural production will have to increase between 50 and 70 percent, and by almost 100 

percent in developing countries. We recognize that increasing production and productivity on a 

sustainable basis while considering the diversity of agricultural conditions is one of the most 

important challenges that the world faces today. The crisis in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa 

also underscores that strengthening emergency and long-term responses to food insecurity 

remains a pressing challenge. We also note that chronic malnutrition is an enormous drain on a 

country’s human resources, and we therefore support the Scaling Up Nutrition movement and 

encourage wider involvement of G20 members.

56. We welcome the considerable progress made in implementing the Action Plan and the food 

security pillar of the Seoul Multi-Year Action Plan on Development. We support the G20 
10

Agriculture Vice-Ministers’ Report annexed to this Declaration, on the progress made on previous 

commitments and key recommendations on sustainably increasing agricultural productivity, 

containing inputs from several international organizations coordinated by the Food and 

Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the OECD, in addition to other recommendations from B20 

and civil society. 

57. To fight hunger, we commit to continue our efforts on our initiatives, including the Tropical 

Agriculture Platform, the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management, the GEO Global Agriculture 

Monitoring, research initiatives for wheat, rice and corn, the Rapid Response Forum, regional 

emergency food reserves, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program and support for the 

Principles of Responsible Agriculture Investment. Recognizing the important contribution of 

greater transparency to reducing food price volatility, we welcome the progress made in the 

implementation of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS). We recognize that a more 

stable, predictable, distortion-free, open and transparent trading system, including as regards 

agriculture, has a critical role to play to promote food security.

58. We reaffirm our commitment to remove export restrictions and extraordinary taxes on food 

purchased for non-commercial humanitarian purposes by the World Food Programme (WFP). 

We encourage the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance 

of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security.

59. We strongly welcome the launch of the “AgResults” Initiative, aimed at improving food security for 

the poor and vulnerable by encouraging private sector innovation of new agricultural products 

and systems constrained by market failures in agriculture. We look forward to the launch of the 

pilot projects focused on innovations in nutrient-fortified crops, post-harvest waste-reducing 

storage solutions and crop quality technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa. We commend those who 

have already committed or signaled their intention to commit funding to this initiative and 

encourage broader participation.

60. We recognize the need to adapt agriculture to climate change and we recognize the importance 

of improving the efficiency of water and soil use in a sustainable manner. To this end, we support 

the development of and a greater use of available technologies, well-known practices and 

techniques such as soil fertility enhancement, minimum tillage and agroforestry, and call upon 

international organizations to provide a report on science-based options to improve the efficiency 

of water use in agriculture including in ways particularly suitable for small farms.

61. We recognize the importance to the global economic recovery of maintaining stability in 

international commodity markets. We stress the importance of well-functioning and transparent 

physical and financial commodities’ markets and reduced excessive price volatility to achieve

food security and strong growth that is both sustainable and inclusive. We recognize that 

excessive commodity price volatility has significant implications for all countries, increasing 

uncertainty for actors in the economy and potentially hampering stability of the budgets, and 

predictability of economic planning. We recognize that mitigating the negative effects of 

commodity price volatility on the most vulnerable is an important component of reducing poverty 

and boosting economic growth. We therefore endorse the conclusions of the G20 report on the 

macroeconomic impacts of excessive commodity price volatility on growth and its identification of 

policy options that countries could consider, taking account of national circumstances to mitigate 

any such effect. We also acknowledge and appreciate the participation and valuable inputs of the 

IMF, World Bank and UNCTAD. We ask our Finance Ministers to report in 2013 on progress on 

the G20’s contribution to facilitate better functioning of these physical markets, taking note of 

possible areas of further work outlined in the report. We reaffirm our commitment to enhance 

transparency and avoid abuse in financial commodity markets, including OTC, with effective 

intervention powers for market regulators and authorities and an appropriate regulation and 
11

supervisory framework. In this regard we look forward to IOSCO’s report on the implementation 

of its recommendations on commodity derivatives markets by November 2012.

62. We recognize that excessive price volatility in energy commodities is also an important source of 

economic instability. We remain committed to well-functioning and transparent energy markets. 

We will continue to work to improve the timeliness, completeness and reliability of JODI-Oil and 

look forward to a progress report next year. We will work on the JODI-Gas database on the same 

principles. We expect the International Energy Forum (IEF) report on improving the reliability of 

the JODI-Oil database and the report on transparency in international gas and coal markets 

submitted by the International Energy Agency (IEA), IEF, and Organization of the Petroleum 

Exporting Countries (OPEC) to be discussed by our Finance Ministers in November. We also 

look forward to IOSCO’s recommendations to improve the functioning and oversight of Price 

Reporting Agencies in November 2012, which will be produced in collaboration with other 

mandated organizations (IEF, IEA and OPEC), and task Finance Ministers to take concrete 

measures in this area as necessary.

Meeting the Challenges of Development

63. Eradicating poverty and achieving strong, inclusive, sustainable and balanced growth remain core 

objectives of the G20 development agenda. We reaffirm our commitment to work with developing 

countries, particularly low income countries, and to support them in implementing the nationally 

driven policies and priorities which are needed to fulfill internationally agreed development goals, 

particularly the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and beyond. 

64. We welcome the initiative of the Development Working Group to build upon the work of previous 

G20 presidencies, and its focus on three priorities during the Mexican Presidency - food security, 

infrastructure and inclusive green growth. We commend the progress achieved against our 

commitments in the Seoul Multi-Year Action Plan, and support the 2012 Development Working 

Group progress report annexed to this Declaration. We invite the Development Working Group to 

explore putting in place a process for ensuring assessment and accountability for G20 

development actions by the next Summit.

65. Investment in infrastructure is critical for sustained economic growth, poverty reduction, and job 

creation. We therefore welcome the strong progress made under the Multi-Year Action Plan, 

including in implementing the recommendations of the Multilateral Development Banks’ (MDBs) 

Action Plan and the High Level Panel on Infrastructure.

66. While recognizing that public financing of infrastructure development projects in developing 

countries remains essential, we consider it should be complemented by private sector 

investment. We encourage MDBs to continue progress under the Action Plan, and welcome the 

report on addressing Misperception of Risk and Return in Low Income Countries. This contains 

important messages about properly perceiving the risks posed, as well as the opportunities 

offered, by long-term infrastructure investment in low income countries. Recognizing the 

challenge that rapid urbanization poses and the need to make cities more sustainable, we 

welcome the report on Best Practices for Urban Mass Transport Infrastructure Projects in Medium 

and Large Cities in Developing Countries, and support the follow-up actions as set out in the 

Development Working Group report.

67. We reaffirm our commitments to the global partnership for development, as set out in the MDGs, 

and welcome efforts to contribute to this end, including the Global Partnership for Effective 

Development Cooperation to be launched with voluntary participation under the auspices of the 

broad consensus achieved at the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Busan, 

Korea.
12

68. We recognize the value of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) tools and strategies to better 

prevent disasters, protect populations and assets, and financially manage their economic 

impacts. We appreciate World Bank and OECD combined efforts, with the UN’s support, to 

provide inputs and broaden participation in the discussion on DRM. We welcome the World 

Bank’s and Mexico’s joint publication on country experiences in this area with the support of G20 

members, and look forward to the OECD voluntary framework to facilitate implementation of DRM 

strategies, to be completed by November.

Promoting longer-term prosperity through inclusive green growth

69. The long-term development and prosperity of current and future generations requires us to look 

beyond the immediate economic crisis. We acknowledge the importance of finding ways in which 

economic growth, environmental protection and social inclusion can complement and reinforce 

each other. Inclusive green growth in the context of sustainable development and poverty 

eradication can help achieve our development and economic goals, while protecting our 

environment, and improving social well-being on which our future depends. Inclusive green 

growth should not be used to introduce protectionist measures.

70. We commit to continue to help developing countries sustain and strengthen their development 

through appropriate measures, including those that encourage inclusive green growth. We will 

reaffirm our commitment to sustainable development at the 2012 United Nations Conference on 

Sustainable Development (Rio+20). We commit to maintaining a focus on inclusive green growth 

as part of our G20 agenda and in the light of agreements reached at Rio+20 and the United 

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

71. Climate change will continue to have a significant impact on the world economy, and costs will be 

higher to the extent we delay additional action. We reiterate our commitment to fight climate 

change and welcome the outcome of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN climate 

change conferences. We are committed to the full implementation of the outcomes of Cancun 

and Durban and will work with Qatar as the incoming Presidency towards achieving a successful 

and balanced outcome at COP-18. We emphasize the need to structurally transform economies 

towards a climate-friendly path over the medium term. We welcome the creation of the G20 study 

group on climate finance, in order to consider ways to effectively mobilize resources taking into 

account the objectives, provisions and principles of the UNFCCC in line with the Cancun 

Agreement and ask to provide a progress report to Finance Ministers in November. We support 

the operationalization of the Green Climate Fund.

72. The Development Working Group discussed a broad set of practical, voluntary measures and 

actions that have the potential to help countries define their paths towards sustainable 

development based on their own circumstances and priorities. We believe that developing 

countries should have access to institutions and mechanisms that can facilitate knowledge 

sharing, resource mobilization and building technical and institutional capacity to design and 

implement inclusive green growth strategies and policies. We welcome international efforts in 

launching the Green Growth Knowledge Platform and will continue exploring options to provide 

appropriate support to interested developing countries. We welcome the delivery of a nonprescriptive, voluntary toolkit of policy options for inclusive green growth and encourage efforts to 

promote its implementation. We encourage further exploration of effective mechanisms to 

mobilize public and private funds for inclusive green growth investment in developing countries, 

including through the public-private Dialogue Platform on Inclusive Green Investments. We 

welcome the B20’s Green Growth Action Alliance.

73. We highlight that green growth and sustainable development have strong potential to stimulate 

long term prosperity and well being. We welcome the report prepared by the OECD, the World 
13

Bank and the UN on incorporating green growth and sustainable development policies into 

structural reform agendas, tailored to specific country conditions and level of development. We 

also acknowledge the G20 efforts to voluntarily self-report on current actions taken to integrate 

green growth and sustainable development into structural reform agendas. We will self-report 

again in 2013, on a voluntary basis, and ask appropriate officials to report back on countries’ 

efforts and progress on incorporating green growth policies in structural reform agendas and in 

relevant national plans to promote sustainable development.

74. We welcome the progress report on fossil fuel subsidies, and we reaffirm our commitment to 

rationalize and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsides that encourage wasteful consumption 

over the medium term while providing targeted support for the poorest. We ask Finance Ministers 

to report back by the next Summit on progress made, and acknowledging the relevance of 

accountability and transparency, to explore options for a voluntary peer review process for G20 

members by their next meeting. We also welcome a dialogue on fossil fuel subsidies with other 

groups already engaged in this work.

75. In Cannes we committed to promote low-carbon development strategies in order to optimize the 

potential for green growth and ensure sustainable development in our countries and beyond. We 

therefore welcome the report on clean energy and energy efficiency technologies and 

acknowledge the G20 countries’ efforts to foster investment in these technologies through the 

sharing of national experiences regarding challenges for technology deployment.

76. We welcome the establishment of a Global Marine Environment Protection Best Practices 

Sharing Mechanism website, and look forward to its launch in accordance with the Cannes 

mandate.

Intensifying the fight against corruption

77. Corruption impedes economic growth, threatens the integrity of markets, undermines fair 

competition, distorts resource allocation, destroys public trust and undermines the rule of law. We 

call on all relevant stakeholders to play an active role in fighting corruption. 

78. Closing the implementation and enforcement gap remains an important priority, and we continue 

to make significant progress towards the full implementation of the Seoul G20 Anti-Corruption 

Action Plan, and the commitments made in the Cannes Monitoring Report. We reiterate our 

commitment to the ratification and full implementation of the United Nations Convention against 

Corruption (UNCAC), and to more active engagement with the OECD working group on bribery

on a voluntary basis. We welcome continuing engagement from the B20 in the fight against 

corruption and, in accordance with the Terms of Reference of the review mechanism, will involve 

the private sector and civil society in the UNCAC review process on a voluntary basis. We 

endorse today the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group principles for denial of entry to our 

countries of corrupt officials, and those who corrupt them, and will continue to develop 

frameworks for cooperation. We also endorse the Working Group’s principles for financial and 

asset disclosure systems for relevant officials to prevent, identify and appropriately manage 

conflicts of interest.

79. We commit to enforcing anti-corruption legislation, and we will pursue those who receive and 

solicit bribes as well as those who pay them in line with our countries’ legislation. To help facilitate 

international cooperation among G20 and non-G20 governments in their investigation and 

prosecution of corruption, we will publish a guide on Mutual Legal Assistance from G20 countries, 

as well as information on tracing assets in G20 jurisdictions. We renew our commitment to deny 

safe haven to the proceeds of corruption and to the recovery and restitution of stolen assets.
14

80. We extend the mandate of the Anti-Corruption Working Group for two years to the end of 2014 

and request the Working Group to prepare a comprehensive action plan, as well as a second 

Working Group Monitoring Report, both to be presented for consideration and adoption by 

Sherpas by the end of 2012.

Other paragraphs

81. In light of the interconnectedness of the world economy, the G20 has led to a new paradigm of 

multilateral co-operation that is necessary in order to tackle current and future challenges 

effectively. The informal and flexible character of the G20 enables it to facilitate international 

economic and financial cooperation, and address the challenges confronting the global economy. 

It is important that we continue to further improve the transparency and effectiveness of the G20, 

and ensure that it is able to respond to pressing needs. As a contribution to this, in line with the 

commitment made in Cannes, Sherpas have developed a set of evolving G20 working practices. 

82. An informal meeting of G20 Ministers of Foreign Affairs was held in Los Cabos in February, which 

explored the ways in which G20 member countries could contribute more effectively to address 

key challenges in global governance.

83. Recognizing the far-reaching impact of G20 decisions, we welcome the extensive outreach efforts 

undertaken by the Mexican Presidency, including the meetings of Business-20, Labor-20, Youth20, and Think-20. We will continue developing efforts with non-members, regional and 

international organizations, including the UN and other actors. In line with the Cannes mandate, 

in order to ensure our outreach remains consistent and effective, we welcome a set of principles 

in this area, developed by Sherpas.

84. We thank international organizations, including the UN, IMF, World Bank, WTO, FSB, ILO, FAO, 

and OECD, as well as civil society, for their input into the G20 process. Their reports and 

recommendations have provided valuable inputs to G20 discussions, in areas ranging from 

sustainable development to financial regulation.

Conclusion

85. We look forward to the rest of the work that will take place during Mexico’s Presidency until 

November 30. On 1 December, 2012, Russia will start chairing the G20. We will convene in St.

Petersburg, under the Chairmanship of Russia. We thank Mexico for hosting a successful Los 

Cabos Summit.