##demic, ensured that the economic fallout from the second and further waves was more subdued. the rapid roll - out of vaccines in developed countries led to a gradual lifting of restrictions on economic activity and to a resumption of investment and consumption with far fewer bankruptcies than expected, although at the cost – consciously incurred – of a one - off increase in public debt. many advanced countries have now reached, or are close to reaching, pre - crisis output levels. under the italian presidency, the g20 also took action to help the weakest economies that had been disproportionally hit by covid - 19. it provided support to multilateral mechanisms, ensuring wide access to tests and vaccines. in addition, to address the structural weaknesses highlighted by the pandemic, it established a new panel on prevention and preparedness that advanced proposals to improve the mobilisation of funding and enhance coordination between health and finance ministries and international organisations. work to deliver a shared solution on these issues will continue in the next few months under the indonesian presidency. the g20 also agreed to extend the suspension of debt service payments for 50 countries until 1 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches the end of the year, and to renew efforts to operationalise the common framework for the treatment of the distressed debt of some eligible countries. while the latter has encountered some difficulties, last october g20 ministers and governors reiterated their commitment to make progress. the g20 also agreed to make 650 billion dollars available in additional reserves through a general sdr allocation, with rechannelling options to allow low - income countries to receive further support. on the second issue – the fight against climate change – our presidency began at a time of swiftly rising awareness of the issues raised by climate change among savers, investors, financial market operators and the public at large. the attitude of g20 delegations was ( and is ) also changing. it is no surprise that countries differ widely in their priorities and sensitivities on this issue, but there appeared to be a worldwide surge in the feeling that a conversation on actions needed had to be held within the g20 framework in a multilateral format. the italian presidency, of course, cannot claim to be the prime mover of any of these global developments. however, i think we can fairly say that the presidency quickly sensed the new spirit, and saw the opportunity to channel it into a concrete discussion of steps to take. under our presidency, the sustainable finance study group has been

settings in most advanced economies occurred in 2007 and 2008. over this period, many policy rates were reduced to close to zero and subsequently, in some cases, even below zero. the collapse in global output and trade at the end of 2008 was sharp and significant. the severity of the episode was increased by the fact that it was synchronised across the global economy. it is now ten years since the onset of the crisis, and nearly nine years since its nadir in the last quarter of 2008, yet we still see policy rates at their post - crisis lows. the federal reserve in the us has raised its policy rate in recent times, but even then only four times in quarter point increments, so that the policy rate has only just reached 1 per cent. that said, broader measures of financial conditions in the us suggest that financial conditions there aren ’ t tighter since the fed 1 / 11 bis central bankers'speeches started increasing its policy rate : longer - term government bond yields and the us dollar exchange rate are both no higher than when the fed first increased its policy rate. corporate bond yields remain near historic lows and us equity prices are higher. the effects of the financial crisis on most parts of the advanced world have been very longlasting. global economic growth has mostly fallen a little short of expectations for the past decade. as a result, even with the expansionary monetary policy settings, aggregate global growth has been average over this time, but not better than average, which would be desirable given the large loss of output in 2008 / 09. as i ’ m sure you all know, australia did not suffer from the same decline in output that many other advanced economies underwent. the level of gdp in australia is 27 per cent higher than it was in 2007. in comparison, in the us, it is 13 per cent ; in the uk, 10 per cent ; while in the euro area, the pre - crisis level of gdp was only regained in 2015. it is only quite recently that forecasts for the global economy have been revised higher for the first time in many years. this has reflected an upswing in industrial production and exports across a broad swathe of the global economy. a critical question is whether this upswing will be sustained. one of the reasons that global growth after the financial crisis has been only moderate is the second common factor i ’ d like to highlight : the low level of corporate investment over the past decade. 1 many of the preconditions