Communiqué of the Seventy-Third Meeting of the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development (G-24), April 15, 2005, Washington, D.C.

Ministers welcome the continued global expansion, which is underpinned by generally supportive macroeconomic policies and benign financial conditions. They note that the expansion is driven mainly by strong growth in the United States, China, and most emerging market and developing countries. Ministers expect continued positive global growth in the near term, although they observe that its pace has moderated and that the balance of risks appears to be tilted to the downside. Key risks include the increasingly unbalanced nature of the global expansion, a tightening of financial market conditions, and a sharp increase and volatility in oil prices. Ministers also express concern about the widening global current account imbalances, which increases the risk of disruptive movements in the exchange rates of the major currencies and in interest rates. They value the stabilizing role that oil-exporting countries play in the oil market and underscore the importance of closer cooperation between importers and exporters to promote market stability.