Roundup: G7 financial leaders vow to use "all tools" to sustain stronger, inclusive growth

Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven (G7) countries on Saturday pledged to use all available means to boost economic recovery and make global growth more inclusive.

They also vowed to cooperate more against cyber crime, finance the global anti-terror fight, and promote a fair tax system including digital economy.

The G7 meeting, gathering financial leaders from the world's seven developed economies, run from May 11 to May 13 in the southern Italian city of Bari.

The meeting ended with the signing of a final communique and three separate documents.

"Global recovery is gaining momentum, yet growth remains moderate and GDP is still below potential in many countries, with the balance of risks tilted to the downside," the leaders said in the communique.

"Against this backdrop... we remain determined to use all policy tools -- monetary, fiscal and structural -- to achieve our goal of strong, sustainable, balanced, and inclusive growth."

A "Bari Policy Agenda" signed at the meeting would provide an overall framework within which the G7 governments would try to foster a more inclusive growth through such tools.

"We see value in combining pro-inclusive growth fiscal policy with structural policies to safeguard macroeconomic stability," they said.

Another focus of the meeting was cyber security. In the final statement, the G7 countries acknowledged the threat represented by cyber crime was rapidly gaining relevance, and vowed to boost cooperation to tackle it, including assessing "economy-wide policy responses."

The ministers agreed to mandate the G7 Cyber Expert Group to develop "a set of high level, and non-binding fundamental elements for effective assessment of cyber security" by October.

The discussion on such topic came "very timely, unfortunately," Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan noted at the meeting.

Indeed, while the G7 made its pledge, a massive-scale cyber attack in private companies and public institutions was reported by almost 100 countries in the world.

Finally, the G7 financial leaders took the first steps to develop a coordinated taxation approach towards digital economy, and asked the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to develop a series of policy options in an interim report due in spring 2018.

Besides ministers and governors from the Group of Seven -- comprising Canada, the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Britain, and Japan, top officials from the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also joined the meeting.

The heads of state and government are expected to gather for a G7 major summit in the city of Taormina, Sicily, on May 26-27. Endit