Daniele Franco: The G20 agenda in 2021, under Italy's leadership

Speech by Mr Daniele Franco, Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy, at the Global Investor Roundtable of the Global Foundation, Rome, 3 February 2021.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

1. Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to contribute to the 2021 Global Investor Roundtable of the Global Foundation. Let me thank the Secretary General Steve Howard for inviting me and for his kind introduction.

Governor Visco addressed the Rome Roundtable last November and illustrated the prospects for the Italian Presidency of the Group of Twenty (G20). I will update you on recent developments.

I would like to start off by saying a few words about the context in which Italy began its Presidency.

2. We all know that the current global crisis is one of unprecedented magnitude. Since the inception of the pandemic, more than 100 million individuals have been diagnosed with COVID-19 worldwide; almost 30 million cases have been recorded in Europe. More than 2 million people have died because of it, about one third of them in Europe.

The pandemic, combined with the containment measures introduced to curb the spread of the virus, plunged the world economy into one of the deepest recessions in recent history. In 2020, despite a short spell of recovery during the summer, world GDP declined by about 3.5 per cent, the largest contraction since WWII. Economic losses in the euro area and the UK have been particularly severe.