LIVE: French Minister Roland Lescure Briefs Media on G7 Finance Talks in Paris

Le

niveau de notre discussion matchs le moment

de

ce G7.

Cette

meeting

est

en train

de faire un message

sur les virtues de dialogue

et

de sustainability.

Mais

c'est aussi sur la nécessité

de

prendre

action. Et

je vous dis quelque chose, à ceux qui questionent la existence de

ce

G7,

les

dernières semaines, j'ai l'impression qu'ils ont

fait

mal.

C

'est

le

7th formal G7 meeting que j'ai présenté depuis janvier, avec

les

organisations et les ministres

de l'Assemblée. Not

only pour

les

situations, mais aussi pour trouver des

solutions

long-term pour construire

un soutien

de croissance.

Et

je vais vous

dire

encore,

c

'est à prendre action.

Nous

avons fait ça en mars, quand nous avons annoncé les stocks

de

stratégie reserves.

Et

à ce moment-là,

nous

avons eu

l

'impact sur le prix de l'Oil. Et nous nous sommes, aujourd'hui, encore, gathers à avoir plus d'actions planned.

Dans

les deux jours, nous avons

eu

des discussions demandantes, mais très constructives,

avec

les G7 finance ministres, avec les central bankers,

en

la spirit de coopération, de shared responsibility,

et

en une très bonne working atmosphere, je dois dire.

I

would like to give a special greeting to my colleague and friend, François Villouet-Galot. He's not going to like the two seconds I'm going to spend on him, but still. But not more than two seconds. Not more than two seconds. Thank you very much for your outstanding work, not only during this G7, but for decades, including the last decade, at the service of the Bank of France. You've played a key role in the French economy, in the European economy, in the global economy.

Thank

you very much, dear François.

From

the beginning of the G7 track, we had three main priorities to address global economic challenges. One, to reduce global economic imbalances. Two,

to

work on our dependencies on critical minerals.

And

three, to revend international partnership.

But

G7 is also about managing emergencies,

thus

dealing with the ongoing crisis.

And regarding

this specific crisis, we have asked

the

IMF and the World Bank to upgrade their support to countries

which

are hit by the crisis.

There

are.

We

have the list.

We

know, and Ajabanga and Kristalina Dorjeva were very clear.

If

we don't do anything, 50 million people

might

be

faced

with a food crisis very soon. We need to act, and I'll get back to that. Because the crisis has a severe impact on the most vulnerable ones, we need to support them at home and abroad.

We

had, we have a G7 communique. You probably have it already, and if you don't, you're going to get it very soon.

But

in addition, and for the first time,

we

had a special focus communique on global economy and global imbalances

which

we worked on with other countries.

Because

this G7 was not just a

G7.

We had a special guest.

We

had a session this morning, being very productive with Brazil, India, Kenya, and South Korea.

They

contributed to

the...

We're

about

to discuss the global economy, but also be highly impressed

with

their resilience and their adaptability.

They

are on the forefront of the crisis, and we command their resilience.

Now

let's come back to our three main priorities. First, global imbalances.

We

all share a common view. Those imbalances are not sustainable.

They're

growing, they're persistent, they create unprecedented geopolitical, political, economic, and financial tensions.

They

have to stop.

On

one side,

you

have China with an excessive

surplus

that's growing every day. On the other side, the U.S. with a major deficit.

And

on the third side, Europe, which doesn't invest enough. And this is affecting everyone, us included,

but

also everyone else.

We

have a record in this story. The China surplus is now $1,200 billion, 20% of global exports,

and

with concrete impacts on our daily lives. This is about jobs. This is about industry. This is about affordability.

This

is about consumption.

This

situation undermines our citizens' trust in globalization

in

our very model.

And

this is not good news for our country, including outside of the G7.

We

all share common interests.

At

the end of the day, it's not about whose fault it is,

but

how we,

all

together, address the situation. We share the need to take domestic measures

based

on the analysis driven by the IMF and the OECD.

We

need to increase investments. We need to improve productivity. We need to end market distorting policies.

Those

measures will be tracked by the IMF, alongside with relevant international organizations such as the OECD.

And

we are going to keep on engaging with other countries in order to provide our leader again with a great assessment and hopefully an action plan

by

the time Avian comes.

One

very good example of what is an imbalance, what

an

imbalance

is,

is the issue of critical minerals.

And

as the G7, we decided to tackle this matter together. Canada started tackling this issue in the previous presidency. We took it on board. We've brought it further. Global imbalances

mean

global dependencies.

Critical

materials and rare earth might be an abstract concept.

to

some of you,

though

they are very, very, very special goods.

It's

a very small market,

but

a disruption, and we've seen it over the last year on that market,

can

cause a huge impact on the economy.

One

electric car

requires

150 magnets. If we don't have the rare earth, we don't have the magnets. If we don't have the magnet, we don't have the car.

Therefore, a

supply shock of permanent magnets can put hundreds of factories out of work.

This

is why we decided in the G7

to

extend the critical mineral alliance that Canada created this time last year

in

order to

put

together a plan that's going to be very concrete on building stockpiles, on trustability of value chain, on structuring information sharing among us,

on

mobilizing multilateral development banks and the private sector to boost investment,

and

to make sure that we provide our leaders with a concrete list of projects

that

show that we can do it.

Regarding

dependencies, the ongoing war exposed our vulnerabilities.

The

conflict in the Middle East is impacting our lives and global economy.

On

that matter, and Francois will get back to that, we benefited from central banks and financial stability board assessment.

The

uncertainty is putting growth and inflation at risk, and we know in what direction. Possibly less growth,

probably

more inflation.

Most

vulnerable countries endure increasing energy and food prices, the fertilizers and supply chain are under pressure.

There

are some people,

some sectors,

some countries under stress right now.

It's

cropping season in a big part of the world, and let us not forget that inflation in fertilizers and food

means

that some people will have difficulties to buy and or to find foods in the next few weeks and months. Everyone agrees that the top priority is to take trade flows back

to

normal.

We

call for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

We

call for a lasting resolution to the conflict.

We

will closely monitor its impact with international organizations.

But

I want to be clear.

The

Strait of Hormuz needs to be open,

free

of charge.

We

know that the longer it takes, the tougher it will be for our economy. And in the meantime, you know that we coordinated strategic reserve release in March. We also agreed on avoiding non-cooperative actions such as export ban.

We

do believe that targeted and temporary measures are the most effective directed to the most affected households and businesses.

And

for country in need, IMF and multilateral development banks will continue working together

using

the full range of their tools and in line with their respective mandate.

We

all agree

that

given the current situation, we should try by all means to avoid a food crisis.

We

want an action plan to be presented to our leaders in Evian this time, next month,

with

a special attention to fertilizers in order to mitigate the impact of the conflict

on

agricultural production and food security.

Time

is of the essence. We must

act. It

will be a joint G7 finance and development work,

which

will also involve relevant international organizations, such as the Food and Agricultural Organization, the International Fund,

the

World Bank, and so on.

As

you know, support to Ukraine has been an important part of our work over the last four years.

It

still is.

Support

to Ukraine is a major commitment of our presidency, and I want to reaffirm our strong and definitive support.

This

is why it was important for us to convey Finance Minister of Ukraine, Seri Martenko, and the Governor of the Central Bank.

And

I want to make it very clear. Russia cannot benefit from the war in the Middle East. This is not an option, and on this,

all

G7 members agree.

On

Ukraine, we've made huge progress on closing the financing gap. We are not there yet.

We

are supporting them. There's reform conditions. We need Ukraine to put their side of the story, which is putting reforms in place. They are strongly committed to that. We are strongly committed

in

maintaining and pursuing sanctions

and

pressures on Russia

to

prevent them from getting critical revenues and financing the war effort.

And

in addition,

we

committed to finance the repair of the Chernobyl confinement.

Ladies

and gentlemen, before I give the floor to Francois,

I

would just like to reiterate that this was

an

important,

very

important, extremely important meeting

addressing

the major economic challenge of the 21st century.

I'm

very well aware of just how important this is.

My

colleagues

are

very well aware

of

just how important it is.

We

know our responsibility on this critical moment.

In

the face

of

geopolitical events,

in

the face of economic imbalances,

in

the face of our dependencies, multilateralism is not an ideal,

it's

not an option,

it's

the most powerful tool.

The

law of the fittest just doesn't work.

We're

ending this with a shared commitment to build a more stable, a more resilient,

a

fairer global economy.

The

road ahead is demanding,

but

our will is even stronger.

To

this extent, we've been working since the first day. Now we need to drive this momentum through to the avian summit

between

the 15th and the 17th of June. Thank you. Francois,

c

'est à toi.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr.

Roland,

allow me one person a

word in French

and

some compliments in English.

The

word personal, the Minister has said that it was my last G7.

I

can say, with the recul of 11 years, and so many points of comparison,

that

the G7 of Paris, this G7 of Paris, has been a very good G7. And it's

not

only us who say it, it's also our colleagues from the other countries who were there.

Very

good G7. What did you think

of

the

G7 of Paris,

it's because the discussions intervened

in

a difficult moment.

But

I think they have three

characteristics

that make the success. They have been, without complaisance, illusibles,

face

to the gravitation of the situation, face also to the

désaccords. Elles

ont été libres,

entre responsables

de haut niveau,

et

puis elles ont été en confiance.

If

I now come to the substance, and only to compliment what the Minister said about the

outcome,

may I insist about some deliverables of what I call pragmatic multilaterrorism. Yes, multilaterrorism is of the essence, but we should be pragmatic in our deliverables. How can we improve the life of our fellow citizens?

Let

me quote three examples we touched upon.

First,

cyber.

And

we had

the

conclusion of a so-called cyber exercise, and

we

decided to strengthen our common work among G7 facing, as we all know, increasing threats.

Second,

extreme weather events.

And

you will see in the communique, there are at least two paragraphs on this issue, which we discussed at 7,

and

in a pragmatic manner, again, to quote one figure, according to private insurers,

the

cost of extreme weather events, the economic cost, has been more than $200 billion last year, 25.

And

this cost has increased, in average, through the last 30 years,

of

at least 5% each year.

So,

the issue of insurability, fulfilling the protection insurance gap, is a key issue. There are private solutions,

or

private public solutions.

We

decided to go on working on these solutions in the G7 framework. And third example, and I pay tribute to you, Minister, and to your team, fight against financial crime.

There

is a very important conference organized this afternoon, but we had the Gaffi, in French, or FATF, chairwoman, coming. As you know, FATF

was

created by the G7 in Paris in 1989. It's based in Paris.

And

it's also,

for

the good of our fellow citizens, think of drug traffic, drug dealers, when we fight against illicit flows, we endeavor to improve the life of our fellow citizens.

Can

I conclude with two issues we discussed more as central bankers in two dedicated sessions?

I

could have mentioned also, and you will see it in the derivatives of the G7, quantum computing, or all our work on non-bank financial intermediations. This refers to financial stability. But I would like to conclude with two issues we discussed more as central bankers.

First,

cross-border payments.

And

this is also a very practical progress for millions and millions of people around the globe. We know that cross-border payments are

too

slow, too expensive at present.

We

decided to accelerate the interlinking of our fast payment system and adopted common values and prepare a practical handbook on there.

We

should make cross-border payments definitely quicker, cheaper,

and

safer.

And

last but not least, we discussed obviously among central bankers, monetary policy, and global economy. And here, I link it directly to what you said, Roland.

It

was in a broadened circle with our South Korean, Indian, and Kenyan colleagues.

We

obviously face a diversity of situation. Let me stress from an economic standpoint

that

there are two supply shocks happening at global level at present. An energy supply shock, obviously, linked to the conflict and negative for most jurisdictions.

But

a positive supply shock on artificial intelligence.

And

the combination of these two shocks is

different

from one jurisdiction to another.

But

that said,

we

discussed obviously the increasing uncertainty increased by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. It heightened risk, as you said, to both growth and inflation.

We

discussed hate and volatility on sovereign bonds market.

It

has several reasons.

The

uncertainty I just mentioned, including political uncertainty in some directions,

some

questions on fiscal policies,

but

let us be clear, fears of inflation.

And

this is for us central banks.

So,

we reaffirm

strongly our

collective commitment to monetary policy and ensuring price stability and anchoring inflation a target for the midiater.

and

this is a strong collective commitment.

You

will see it in the communique. Monetary policy will remain data dependent

and

we are closely monitoring what we call the second round effect

on

core inflation, on inflation expectations and on economic activity.

We

are ready to act as much as necessary. The precise answer clearly belongs to each central bank and each jurisdiction.

And I

will stop there

and

we'll answer your questions.

Can

you tell

your... Évidemment,

les questions en français sont les bienvenues.

Et

on répondra en français.

Georges,

j'ai

l'idée du politico. Du coup, je vais poser ma question en français. Vous avez évoqué, monsieur le ministre, des discussions franches directes et parfois difficiles. Je vais me demander si les réunions d'hier et d'aujourd'hui ont été l'occasion de rappeler pour les Européens le fait que la guerre au Moyen-Orient doit se terminer au plus vite et de parler du fait que les conséquences économiques se feront sentir davantage en Europe. Merci beaucoup.

Je

pense qu

'il

n

'y a

pas que les Européens qui pensent ça. Nous pensons tous qu'elles doivent se terminer au plus vite.

On

est engagés dans un conflit difficile. Nous sommes évidemment tous convaincus que l'Iran ne doit pas avoir accès à la bombe atomique, que les enjeux balistiques doivent être traités.

Et tout

ça, je dirais, je le laisse à mes collègues

qui

s'occupent de géopolitique, mais nous sommes tous évidemment conscients que

le

plus tôt, on ouvrira le détroit d'Harmouz, le plus tôt, ce nœud économique d'un conflit géopolitique sera tranché. Le mieux, on se portera tous.

Mais

je l'ai dit, je vous le répète, ça ne se fera pas à n'importe quel prix, notamment

au

prix de je ne sais quel péage qui contreviendrait de manière flagrante aux droits internationaux. Voilà, on fait face à une réalité, on est un monde avec lequel on vit et on fait tout pour, en collectif, s'assurer que les

conséquences

économiques de ce choc sont les plus limitées possibles. Et notamment, j'insiste là-dessus,

pour

les plus vulnérables, parce que ça a été notre focus depuis deux jours et ça le reste.

Bonjour, Monsieur le Ministre. Juste une question en anglais. Ross Culloden from Channel News Asia. You said that you were aligned

with

your G7 colleagues that Russia must not benefit from the war in Ukraine.

The

United States has announced another waiver of sanctions on Russian oil. Do you agree with that extension of the waiver? If you're aligned with your G7 colleagues

and

separately also on your discussions with Mr. Besant,

did

you call again with him for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz?

And

did you get any sense from the United States delegation

of

their next moves in terms of the conflict?

Thank

you.

Well,

we all agree, Scott Besant included, that we should open the Strait of Hormuz as soon as possible, not at any cost, and suddenly free of charge.

You

know, he's given us a bit of an update on the state of the conversation.

One

of the beauties, and I know it's frustrating for some of you guys of the G7 in that not everyone we say necessarily comes out of the room.

I

was talking to someone who was involved in G7 a long time ago

who

said to me that at first

a

G7 was a meeting behind closed doors with seven leaders, no staff, no agenda, no note-taking. I mean, we've gone much further and we're now having a press conference exchanging with you on what we said and the outcome.

We

have a communique, there's tons of work being done. There's still conversations that are not going to come out because this is the beauty of the exercise. On the waiver on

Russian

oil, this is certainly not a G7 decision. So I'll let you ask Scott Besson why and how they decided to do that. But I can tell you that the willingness of the G7 to keep on putting pressure

on

sanctions on Russia

was

unanimous and that nobody wants Russia to have a windfall profit of what's going on

in

the Middle East.

Lee

Thomas from Reuters. You mentioned domestic measures to address the unsustainable macro imbalances. What precisely do you have in mind and how can

having

the IMF and the OECD track those make a difference? And then secondly, on the critical materials, have you sort of narrowed the options on the common toolbox? What are the concrete steps

that

you're going to take going forward?

on the

global

imbalances,

I

think we all understand that

it's

not about finger-pointing. It's not about telling you should do this or you should do that. And suddenly, we all reply to our parliaments, I don't want to go to the French parliament telling them that the G6 has told the seventh number which is me to do this and that.

the

idea, and I know it's

a

conversation that requires a change of mindset,

not

a mindset that thinks that in every conversation there's a winner and there's a loser, but that we can have conversations together where together we can win-win.

And

that's what the IMF analysis and that's what Hélène Reyes' Economist Group has brought to the table as well,

which

is, at the end of the day, if each of us does the right thing,

we'll

all together be better off.

I

said, very simply, Europe needs more investment.

I

said, very simply, China needs more consumption. And I said, very simply,

the

US deficit needs to go down. Well, guess what? When you talk to these people, every one of us says that we should do it.

The

question is,

can

we have a way of doing this together, coordinating ourselves, doing it simultaneously because everyone around the table admits

that

if we do it together, it's going to be more efficient. And that requires a conversation that hasn't happened yet. There's been

lots

of bilateral discussions.

The

president would like to, my president, Emmanuel Macron, would like to engage with all the actors

and

including China that wasn't here today, but also Brazil, India,

some

countries of Africa, Europe, the US and others, Canada and others,

to

make sure that together we can find a roadmap. And hopefully, this is going to happen between now and Evian. We're not there yet, but we had great productive conversation on this. On the raw material and critical mineral acts,

the

way I would describe the Lego we tried to build

is

threefold. One,

the

International Energy Agency was created in the 70s, faced with, at that time, a big old shock

that

made us realize that we didn't have the tools to follow the market, to understand where inventories were, to understand where vulnerabilities were. So, we want to be able, together, as a G7, to follow that market.

We

probably call that a task force. The idea is not to build a new agency. The IEA is doing a great job. The OECD is doing a great job. But we want to be able to monitor the market, to understand them,

to

understand where stockpilings are, where stockpilings are missing,

to

make sure that we are able as a group to say, okay, the market's okay, no need

to

act, or the market's not okay, and there's one of those markets where we need to act.

Two,

there's discussions on agreements that could take different ways that are taking place at the initiative of the U

.S., that

could look at different ways and tools of addressing market inefficiencies. There could be price laws, there could be tariffs, there could be

quotas,

and this is an ongoing work that hasn't completely landed yet.

But

three, I think most importantly, we need to show that together we are able to change the conversation, make things happen on the ground that are changing the balance of power

for

those rare earths that are becoming critical to electrification.

Two

weeks ago, I was in the southwest of France

looking

at a factory that's been financed by U.S., Japan, and France

that's

going to recycle and produce 10% of the rare earth we need in the world, in Pau, in LAC, in the southwest of France. And those 10% are going to be half of taken

by

Japan. This is, again, what you call, Francois, multilateralism on the ground, pragmatic multilateralism. We are showing the ground that we can produce alternatives to a market for which it has to be acknowledged we have a monopoly today from one country.

If

I may add one word on the part of the question referring to domestic measures, if I got it right, Lee. There was unanimous agreement around the table that such measures should be, you remember, the famous TTT, targeted, temporary, and tailored. Unanimous agreement.

Can

I add two practical observations?

so

far, the IMF has an IMF tracker, measures taken by jurisdictions, I don't say they all perfectly comply with the three T's,

but

such measures are much more limited than after 22,

and

rightly so, if you look at the quantum compared to GDP.

And

may I add, Mr. Minister, a remark for France, as a very independent central banker,

so

far, I think the sober answer by the French authorities is welcome in this period. Because we all know if we don't respect the TTT, it creates fiscal problem, obviously, but it was reminded yesterday, it increases

oil

demand globally.

And

this is exactly the contrary of what we should do.

need.

Thank you so much. Susumu Sakamoto from the Asahi Shimbun, Japanese media. Regarding the food security, have you discussed any specific measures, including sitting in

the

corridor for fertilizer? or, yeah?

Yeah,

I mean, as you know, that was one of the U.S. ideas that was brought forward at the G20 in Washington about a month ago.

This

is one of the options we could look at.

We

have to make sure that

the

most vulnerable countries, it's cropping season there, cannot be durably affected by the crisis on fertilizers. So this could be one of the options. There's other options in terms of diversification of supply, and maybe stock depiling, that could happen as well. But we suddenly are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that no food crisis is coming after this Gulf War.

Yeah,

oui?

Romain

Tardino pour le journal SPC de société. Bonjour, Monsieur le Ministre. Bonjour, Monsieur le Gouverneur. J'ai une question pour vous. En fait, il y a deux semaines, vous disiez que

le

kérosène n'allait pas être à risque. le conflit s'enlise.

Qu

'en est-il aujourd

'hui?

J

'ai la même réponse qu'il

y a

deux semaines. Heureusement,

on

suit les choses évidemment de très près, mais quand on regarde le marché du kérosène en Europe, en France singulièrement, puisque c'était

la

réponse à une question qui m'était posée il y a 15 jours à l'occasion de l'évocation de la saison touristique de cet été,

le

fait qu'on ait augmenté nos capacités de raffinage, le fait qu'on ait diversifié nos approvisionnements, notamment en provenance des États-Unis, qui eux-mêmes ont augmenté leur production de kérosène,

fait

que nous sommes confiants sur notre capacité collective cet été à s'assurer que les avions puissent voler en France, de France et vers la France.

Bonjour

Mathilde Odoemi, France Inter. Deux questions pour chacun d'entre vous. Monsieur le ministre,

je

veux bien que vous repreniez en quoi cette réunion du G7 va permettre de temporiser les conséquences de la crise actuelle

pour

nos sociétés.

Et

monsieur le gouverneur, est-ce que le fait d'avoir vu tous les banquiers centraux vous a permis d'arrêter une décision ou des avancées en vue des réunions futures de juin, sachant que tout le monde avait décidé de temporiser

? Et

puisque vous parliez d'indépendance tout à l'heure de la Banque centrale, petite question franco-française, puisque les députés socialistes ont choisi de ne pas soutenir Emmanuel Moulin en commission, est-ce que vous pensiez que votre succession serait si compliquée

?

Merci.

Je

veux commencer

? Oh

non, non, honneur au ministre.

Bon,

face

à une crise globale, le G7 a une fois de plus montré son

intérêt. À

la fois, je dirais, entre nous sept,

mais

aussi au-delà.

Les

discussions qu'on a eues avec nos amis kényans, nos amis indiens, nos amis brésiliens, puis avec nos amis du Golfe

au

déjeuner, nous ont montré

que la

meilleure manière de gérer cette crise, c'était de se concentrer sur les plus vulnérables. Des mesures à tas uniques qui concerneraient tout le monde, y compris ceux qui n'en ont pas besoin, que ce soit des secteurs, que ce soit des ménages,

que

ce soit des pays, seraient évidemment une mauvaise manière de répondre à cette crise. Pourquoi

? C

'est ce qu'on appelle une crise d'offres, un choc d'offres.

On

manque du jour au lendemain d'une partie du pétrole mondial.

Et

si on répond globalement en subventionnant massivement la demande, on va se retrouver avec un déséquilibre encore plus marqué. Et donc, ce consensus autour de notre capacité collective à identifier les plus vulnérables

et

à

diriger

nos mesures vers eux, c'était évidemment un des éléments concrets de ce G7.

Mais

de surtout,

nous

avons, avec le FMI, avec la Banque mondiale, identifié ces plus vulnérables.

Et

nous avons en tête un certain nombre de pays

aux

côtés duquel il va falloir être de manière très concrète avec des instruments qui existent

au

service du Fonds monétaire et de la Banque mondiale pour les aider. On a des pays aujourd'hui, l'Irak par exemple,

qui

est un pays qui dépend cruellement de ses ressources de pétrole et qui aujourd'hui est évidemment incapable de les exporter.

Nous

devons focaliser nos mesures sur le soutien à l'Irak, évidemment, le Fonds monétaire et la Banque mondiale travaillent. Donc, de manière très concrète aujourd'hui, au-delà des enjeux de sécurité alimentaire dont je parlais tout à l'heure, ce G7 nous a permis

de

prioriser,

de

séquencer et de focaliser notre aide sur ceux qui

en ont le plus besoin. Sur vos deux questions, je vais commencer par la dernière. Vous n'allez pas être surpris par ma réponse. Concernant la nomination de mon successeur, il y

a

une procédure qui est prévue par la Constitution et les lois de la République. Elle se déroule. Laissons-la se dérouler. Et effectivement, il

y

a les auditions parlementaires demain.

La

Banque de France n'a fait aucun commentaire ni votre serviteur depuis le début de cette procédure. Elle n'a pas à en faire.

Alors,

en ce qui concerne la politique monétaire et les rencontres entre banquiers centraux, nous n'avons pas eu, je l'ai dit tout à l'heure, de discussion pays par pays ou région par région concernant la zone euro.

Alors,

il se trouve que je ne participerai pas étant parti à la prochaine réunion des conseils des gouverneurs de début juin à laquelle vous faites allusion.

Je

veux simplement redire deux choses.

La

première, c'est la volonté générale, je le rappelais tout à l'heure, d'agir dans toute la mesure nécessaire

pour

ramener l'inflation à sa cible de 2% dans notre cas

à

moyen terme.

Ça

veut dire agir et non pas sur-réagir, ça veut dire disposer des informations en ce qui concerne les effets de second tour, l'inflation sous-jacente,

les

anticipations d'inflation, notamment des ménages et des entreprises, les salaires, mais nous serons prêts à agir comme il le faut parce que nous avons une obligation de résultat. Les ménages et les entreprises français et européennes peuvent nous faire confiance pour assurer cet ancrage de l'inflation à 2%. Je le redis très fortement.

L

'autre chose, si vous me permettez une remarque un peu plus spécifique sur le débat européen, mais je n'irai pas plus loin,

je

crois qu'il ne faut pas focaliser le débat seulement sur le calendrier.

Je

vous permettez de le dire avec un sourire, quand on était au mois d'avril, c'était qu'est-ce que vous allez faire 20 avril ? Maintenant, c'est qu'est-ce que vous allez faire début juin

?

En anglais, parce que ceci prête mieux. The main question is not about the date, it's about data.

Pas

un calendrier, mais des données.

J

'ai dit à l'instant quels sont les éléments de notre fonction de réaction liée au second tour. Après, ce sera au Conseil des gouverneurs le 9 et 10 juin de décider selon ces données.

On

prend une dernière question peut-être

?

Oui. Dernière question

? Allez-y. Bonjour,

merci beaucoup. Marie Viennot, France Culture. Est-ce que vous avez parlé, parce que vous nous dites que tout le monde était d'accord pour dire que le multilatéralisme, vraiment, c'était la solution. Est-ce que vous avez parlé du commerce et notamment de la politique américaine qui n'a pas été très coopérative l'année dernière ? Est-ce que c'est un sujet qui a été abordé et quelles solutions vous y voyez ? Et quand vous nous parlez d'action concrète, vraiment, il faut qu'on... We need to take action to ce que vous dites, etc. Donc là, vous nous donnez l'exemple par exemple de l'aide du FMI et des pays qui pourraient...

Mais est-ce que vous avez d'autres exemples à nous donner, puisque vous parlez notamment des engrais, que c'est la saison où justement on en a besoin. Et est-ce qu'il faut attendre le G7 déviant en juin pour avoir vraiment la traduction concrète de ce que vous nous dites où déjà aujourd'hui, il y

a

des choses qui ont été décidées ou alors, en fait,

vous

nous amorcez tout ce qui va être concret en juin. Merci.

Peut-être pour répondre de manière un peu simpliste peut-être à votre question, l'idée de ce G7 finance, c'était un peu de faire la passe décisive à nos leaders.

C

'est vrai qu'un certain nombre de sujets importants sont en passe d'être finalisés, mais que parce que le président de la République a souhaité que ces sujets soient abordés au plus haut niveau,

parce

qu'ils concernent des sujets extrêmement importants, parce qu'ils concernent aussi l'avenir du monde, nous avons, je pense, pas mal avancé le travail de manière à ce que nos leaders puissent, je l'espère en tout cas, le conclure sur des sujets aussi importants, très concrètement, que les minerais critiques, que le règlement des déséquilibres globaux qui peut parfois paraître un peu théorique.

Mais

si la France a perdu des dizaines d'usines ces 30 dernières années, c'est du fait de ces déséquilibres globaux. Si aujourd'hui, les marchés financiers,

je

ne

peux

pas dire qu

'ils

nous inquiètent, mais en tout cas, ils nous occupent et parfois même, ils nous préoccupent, c'est en grande partie du fait de ces déséquilibres globaux. Donc, il est important évidemment d'avoir tout ça en tête

et

les leaders trancheront. Sur le commerce international, d'abord, je ne

suis

pas sûr que tout le monde considère que le multilatéralisme soit la solution à tout. Ça, c'est ma conviction. Je pense que cette réunion a montré qu'effectivement, sur tous les sujets, au fond,

plus

on parle, mieux on est. Et je pense, y compris d'ailleurs, les États-Unis qui nous ont par exemple remercié quand on a libéré les stocks stratégiques au mois de mars de manière collective, reconnaissent quand même que parfois, ça peut aider. Est-ce que ça veut dire qu'on est d'accord sur tout ? Non, sur le commerce international, c'est une des questions que vous évoquez. Évidemment, nous ne sommes pas d'accord. Et dès qu'il faut rappeler à Scott Bessene que je ne

suis

pas d'accord avec lui sur l'utilisation des tarifs dans la correction des équipes globaux, je vous rassure,

je

le fais.

Mais

une fois qu'on est ces désaccords, notre capacité collective à trouver des lieux où on peut se mettre d'accord, où on peut avancer ensemble, on peut même parfois essayer de se convaincre

qu

'on peut avancer ensemble, ce sont évidemment les bienvenus. C'est pour ça que le G7 avait été créé dans les années 70, à un moment d'un autre

choc

pétrolier, à un moment d'un autre conflit mondial. On continue à le faire et je suis très heureux de voir qu'au fond, ça fonctionne.

Merci

beaucoup. Merci à toutes. et à toutes. On continue avec la conférence « No monnaie for terror », une conférence très importante. François l'a dit, on a de manière très concrète au coin de nos rues souvent des matérialisations très réelles. On a 75 délégations présentes ici

pour

s'assurer que le financement illicite des activités illégales

ne

soit plus

dans

le monde, y compris avec les outils modernes. Merci.

Pour

la suite, pour les next steps, juste. Donc, si vous voulez aller au briefing juste après, vous pouvez suivre Juliette dans la salle de rencontre où vous êtes s'assuré. Si vous voulez aller au port de la

conférence

de NMFT pour les portes, vous pouvez suivre Elvire là, qui est à l'entrée. OK

?

Si vous voulez pour le briefing,

we

will send you the

text.

So, if you are not here, you will have the text.

7. My

president has set

a

range of priorities of which a big part

are

fundamentally economic.

This

is not just a simple gathering. 7.

My

president has set a range of priorities of which a big part

are

fundamentally economic.

This

is not just a simple gathering.

This

is the result of months

of

work and discussion. And I would like to use this opportunity to thank everyone that's been involved in the process of organizing this meeting here in Bercy,

but

also making the work land. Thank you all.

we

are at a critical moment

and

we could feel this. There was solenity

in

our discussions.

The

level of our discussion matched the momentum of this G7.

this

meeting

is

about one

delivering

a message about the virtues of dialogue

and

sustainability.

But

it's also about the necessity

of

taking actions.

And

let me tell you something to those who question the very existence of the G7.

The

last few months have proven them wrong.

This

is the seventh formal G7 meeting that I was sharing since January in all sorts of

organizations

and distributions of ministers.

Not

only to address the situation but also to find out long-term solutions to build sustainable growth.

And

I will say it again.

It

is about taking actions.

We

did it in March when we released the stocks

of

strategic reserves

and

at that time it had an impact on the price of oil and we were today again gathers to have more actions planned.

Those

past two days we had demanding conversations but very constructive discussions

with

the G7 finance ministers with the central banker

in

the spirit of cooperation of shared responsibility and in a very good working atmosphere I have to say.

I

would like to give a special greeting to my colleague and friend Francois Bilroy-Galo he's not going to like the two seconds I'm going to spend on him but still but not more than two seconds thank you very much for your outstanding work not only during this G7 but for decades including the last decade at the service of the Bank of France you've played a key role in the French economy in the European economy in the global economy

thank

you very much dear Francois

from

the beginning of the G7 track we had three main priorities to address global economic challenges

one

to reduce global economic imbalances two

to

work on our dependencies on critical minerals

and

three to revamp international partnership

but

G7 is also about managing emergencies

thus

dealing with the ongoing crisis

and

regarding this specific crisis

we

have asked the IMF and the World Bank to upgrade their support to countries which are hit by the crisis

there

are

we

have the list

we

know and Ajabanga and Kristalina Dorjeva were very clear

if

we don't do anything 50 million people

might

be faced with a food crisis very soon we need to act and I'll get back to that

because

the crisis has a severe impact on the most vulnerable ones we need to support them at home and abroad

we

had we have a G7 communique you probably have it already and if you don't you're going to get it very soon

but

in addition and for the first time

we

had a special focus communique on global economy and global imbalances which we worked on with other countries

because

this G7 was not just a G7 we had special guests

we

had a session this morning very productive with Brazil India Kenya and South Korea they contributed to the discussion

we

took major steps to take the right path towards more stability more resilience and a better understanding of our common challenges and mutual interest

and

we just had lunch with an extra set of partners from the Gulf

Qatar the

Emirates and Saudi Arabia in which once again

we're

about to discuss the global economy but also be highly impressed

with

their resilience and their adaptability they are on the forefront of the crisis and we command their resilience

now

let's come back to our three main priorities first global imbalances

we

all share a common view

those

imbalances are not sustainable

they're

growing they're persistent they create unprecedented geopolitical political economic and financial tensions

they

have to stop

on

one side you have China with an excessive surplus that's growing every day on the other side the US with a major deficit and on the third side Europe

which

doesn't invest enough and this is affecting everyone us included but also everyone else

we

have a record in this the China surplus is not 1200 billion dollars 20% of global exports

and

with concrete impacts on our daily lives

this

is about jobs this is about industry this is about affordability this is about consumption

this

situation undermines our citizens trust in globalization in our very model

and

this is not good news for our country including outside of the G7

we

all share common interests

at

the end of the day it's not about whose fault it is

but

how we

all

together address the situation this is multilateralism at its best

and

on this front we agreed to take urgent actions

we

shared the need to take domestic measures based on the analysis driven by the IMF and the OECD we need to increase investments we need to improve productivity we need to end market distorting policies

those

measures will be tracked by the IMF alongside with relevant international organizations such as the OECD

and

we are going to keep on engaging with other countries in order to provide our leader again with a great assessment and hopefully an action plan

by

the time Avian comes

one

very good example of what is an imbalance

is

the issue of critical minerals

and

as the G7 we decided to tackle this matter together Canada started tackling this issue in the previous presidency we took it on board we brought it further global imbalances

mean

global dependencies

critical

materials and rare earth might be enough track concept to some of you

though

they are very very special goods

it's

a very small market

but

a disruption and we've seen it over the last year on that market can cause a huge impact on the economy

one

electric car requires 150 magnets if we don't have the rare earth we don't have the magnets if we don't have the magnet we don't have the car therefore a supply shock of permanent magnets can put hundreds of factories out of work

this

is why we decided in the G7

to

extend the critical manual alliance that Canada created this time last year

in

order to

put

together a plan that's going to be very concrete on building stock piles on trustability of value chain on structuring information sharing among us

on

mobilizing multilateral development banks and the private sector to boost investment and to make sure that we provide our leaders with a concrete list of projects that show that we can do it

regarding

dependencies the ongoing war exposed our vulnerabilities

the

conflict in the Middle East is impacting our lives and global economy

on

that matter and Francois will get back to that we benefited from central banks

and

financial stability board assessment

the

uncertainty is putting growth and inflation at risk and we know in what direction

possibly

less growth

probably

more inflation

most

vulnerable countries endure increasing energy and food prices fertilizers and supply share now under pressure

there

are some people

some

sectors some countries under stress right now

it's

cropping season in a big part of the world and let us not forget that inflation and fertilizers and food means that some people will have difficulties to buy and or to find foods in the next few weeks and month

everyone

agrees that the top priority is to take trade flows back to normal

we

call for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz we call for lasting resolution to the country

we

will closely monitor its impact with international organization

but

I want to be clear

the

Strait of Hormuz needs to be open

free

of charge

we

know that the longer it takes the tougher it will be for economy and in the meantime you know that we coordinated strategic reserve release in March

we

also agreed on avoiding non-cooperative actions such as export ban

we

do believe that targeted and temporary measures are the most effective directed to the most affected households and businesses

and

for country in need IMF and multilateral development banks will continue working together

using

the full range of their tools and in line with their respective mandate

we

all agree

that

given the current situation we should try by all means to avoid a food crisis

we

want an action plan to be presented to our leaders in Avian this time next month

with

a special attention to fertilizers in order to mitigate the impact of the conflict on agricultural production and food security

time

is of the essence we must

act it

will be a joint G7 finance and development work

which

will also involve relevant international organizations such as the Food and Agricultural Organization the International Fund

the

World Bank and so on

as

you know support to Ukraine has been an important part of our work over the last four years

it

still is

support

to Ukraine is a major commitment of our presidency and I want to reaffirm our strong and definitive support

this

is why it was important for us to convey finance minister of Ukraine and the governor of the central bank

and

I want to make it very clear

Russia

cannot benefit from the war in the Middle East this is not an option and on this

all

G7 members agree

on

Ukraine we've made huge progress on closing the financing gap we are not there yet

we

are supporting them there's reform conditions we need Ukraine to put their side of the story which is putting reforms in place they are strongly committed to that we are strongly committed in maintaining and pursuing sanctions and pressures on Russia

to

prevent them from getting critical revenues and financing the war effort

and

in addition

we

committed to finance the repair of the Chernobyl confinement

ladies

and gentlemen before I give the floor to Francois I would just like to reiterate that this was

an

important very important extremely important meeting

addressing

the major economic challenge of the 21st century

I'm

very well aware of just how important this is

my

colleagues are very well aware

of

just how important it is

we

know our responsibility on this critical moment

in

the face of geopolitical events

in

the face of economic imbalances

in

the face of our dependencies multilateralism is not an ideal

it's

not an option

it's

the most powerful tool

the

law of the fittest just doesn't work

we're

ending this with a shared commitment to build a more stable a more resilient a fairer global economy

the

road ahead is demanding

but

our will is even stronger

to

this end we've been working since the first day now we need to drive this momentum through to the avion summit

between

the 15th and the 17th of June

thank

you

françois c

'est à toi

merci

monsieur le ministre le

mot

personnel il se trouve le ministre l'a dit que c'était mon dernier G7

je

peux dire avec le recul de onze années et donc beaucoup de points de comparaison que le G7 de Paris ce G7 de Paris a été un très bon G7 et ce n'est pas seulement nous qui le disons c'est aussi nos collègues des autres pays qui étaient là

très

bon G7 ce qui m'a frappé c'est parce que les discussions intervenaient évidemment dans un moment difficile mais je crois qu'elles ont eu trois caractéristiques qui font le succès elles ont été sans complaisance et lucides face à la gravité de la situation face aussi au désaccord

elles

ont été libres entre responsables de haut niveau et puis elles ont été en confiance

si

je

vais

maintenant pour la substance et seulement pour compliquer ce

que

le ministre a dit sur le

de

l'outcome

je

vais vous remercier de ce qu'on appelle pragmatique multilaterrorisme oui, multilaterrorisme est de l'essence mais nous devons être pragmatique dans nos délivres comment on peut

-être

improve la vie de nos collègues de

nos

citoyens

let

me quote three examples we touched upon

first

cyber

and

we had

the

conclusion of a so-called cyber exercise and we decided to strengthen our common work among G7 facing as we all know increasing threats

second

extreme weather events

and

you will see in the communique there are at least two paragraphs on this issue which we discussed at 7

and

in a pragmatic manner again to quote one figure according to private insurers

the

cost of extreme weather events the economic cost has been more than 200 billion dollars last year 25

and

this cost has increased in average through the last 30 years

of

at least 5% each year

so

the issue of insurability

fulfilling

the protection insurance gap is a key issue there are private solutions or private public solutions we decided to go on working on these solutions in the G7 framework

and

third example and I pay tribute to you minister and to your team fight against financial crime

there

is a very important conference organized this afternoon but we had the Gaffi in French or FATF chairwoman coming as you know FATF was created by the G7 in Paris in 1989 it's based in Paris

and

it's also

for

the good of our fellow citizens think of drug traffic drug dealers when we fight against illicit flows we endeavor to improve the life of our fellow citizens

can

I conclude with two issues we discussed more central bankers in two dedicated sessions

I

could have mentioned also and you will say it in the deliverables of the G7 quantum computing or all our work on non-bank financial intermediations this refers to financial stability but I would like to conclude with two issues we discussed more central bankers

first

cross-border payments

and

this is also very practical progress for millions and millions of people around the globe we know that cross-border payments are

too

slow too expensive at present

we

decided to accelerate the interlinking of our fast payment system and adopted common values and prepare

a

practical handbook on that

we

should make cross-border payments definitely quicker cheaper and safer

and

last but not least we discussed obviously among central bankers monetary policy and global economy and here I link it directly to what you said Roland

it

was in a broadened circle with our South Korean Indian and Kenyan colleagues

we

obviously face a diversity of situation let me stress from an economic standpoint

that

there are two supply shocks happening at global level at present an energy supply shock obviously linked to the conflict and negative for most jurisdictions

but

a positive supply shock on artificial intelligence

and

the combination of these two shocks is

different

from one jurisdiction to another

but

that said

we

discussed obviously the increasing uncertainty increased by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East

it

heightened risk as you said

to

both growth and inflation

we

discussed heightened volatility on sovereign bonds market

it

has several reasons

the

uncertainty I just mentioned including political uncertainty in some directions

some

questions on fiscal policies

but

let us be clear

fears

of inflation

and

this is for us central banks

so

we reaffirm

strongly our

collective commitment to monetary policy ensuring price stability and anchoring inflation a target for the immediate

and

this is a strong collective commitment