The Ministry of Finance (MoF) recently participated in the first Framework Working Group (FWG) meeting within the G20 Finance Track for 2022, which took place remotely. The meeting sought to discuss global economic risks and exit strategies for strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth; as well as economic outlook, inflation and macro-fiscal policies.Ali Sharafi, Director of the Budget Department, and Shamma Yousif Abdelghani, Project Manager and Executive Vice President for Innovation participated in the meeting.During the meeting, the UAE delegation showcased the latest economic and growth projections for the UAE for 2021 and 2022. The delegation emphasised the importance of exploring the best strategies to balance possible monetary policies with well-calibrated fiscal strategies, especially in light of the rapid gradual withdrawal of fiscal and monetary policies, which have been devised to mitigate the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic.The UAE delegation expressed the UAE's support on strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth efforts made by the FWG. The delegation supported the elevated emphasis on mobilising fiscal policy to support the healthcare system amid the escalation of COVID-19 cases and the emergence of new variants. The delegation also expressed support for the continued effort of the group to balance local recovery objective with the need for a united global response to ensure that recovery policies are indeed driven by economic priorities.The meeting deliberated key risks relating to COVID-19 and macroeconomic policies, and the progress with the recovery phase within the member countries. That, in addition to discussing means of continuing to support poor countries and others. The members also discussed other risks such as inflationary pressures and effects of climate change; and provided the latest economic outlook for their jurisdictions and latest projections for growth and the economic recovery from COVID-19.At the end of the meeting, the members and participating international organisations agreed on FWG's work plan for 2022. The group will discuss the progress made with the FWG reports for this year in the next FWG meeting in March 2022.
