G20 finance chiefs back central banks’ independence as they seal communique

By Philip Blenkinsop and Maria Martinez

Finance chiefs from the Group of 20 countries stressed the importance of central bank independence in a communique issued on Friday following a two-day meeting in South Africa’s coastal city of Durban.

The ministers and central bankers pledged to boost cooperation as they sealed their first communique since October 2024, a month before President Donald Trump’s election victory and subsequent tariff war.

The issue of central bank independence hung heavily over the meeting following Trump’s repeated berating of U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting interest rates, attacks that have roiled global financial markets.

The communique was reached in the absence of U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from the two-day meeting, though Washington was represented by Michael Kaplan, acting under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs.

Bessent also skipped the previous G20 finance chiefs’ gathering in Cape Town in February, even though Washington is due to assume the G20’s rotating presidency in