ASHINGTON (TIP): Finance leaders from the G20 major economies  endorsed a global deal to revamp corporate taxation and pledged to sustain fiscal support for their economies while keeping a close eye on rising inflation.

The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors also said in a communique issued after a meeting in Washington that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should establish a new trust fund to channel a $650-billion issuance of its monetary reserves to a broader range of vulnerable countries. The finance leaders noted in their statement that economic recovery “remains highly divergent across and within countries” and is vulnerable to new variants of Covid and an uneven pace of vaccinations. “We will continue to sustain the recovery, avoiding any premature withdrawal of support measures, while preserving financial stability and longterm fiscal sustainability, and safeguarding against downside risks and negative spillovers,” the G20 finance leaders said in the statement.

Given rising inflation pressures driven by supply chain bottlenecks and shortages as economies struggle to normalise, the leaders said that central banks are “monitoring current price dynamics closely”.

‘India offers spectrum of opportunities’

India offers a spectrum of opportunities to investors and business firms, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told executives of top American companies as she met and apprised them of various flagship programmes of the Indian government under Atma Nirbhar Bharat. Sitharaman, 62, is currently in the US capital and has been meeting a host of top American CEOs with footprints in India and who have shown interest in seizing the investment opportunities in the country.