Dr Richard Cantor, International Co-Chair represented PECC at the APEC Finance Ministers Meeting held on 22 October 2021. At their meeting Finance Ministers from the Asia-Pacific shared views on responding to COVID-19 for a sustainable and inclusive recovery and the use of fiscal policy and budget management to address ongoing challenges.

Dr Cantor, also the chair of the USPECC committee and the Chief Credit Officer for Moody’s Corporation and Moody’s Investors Service shared highlights from PECC’s forthcoming State of the Region report with the region’s Finance Ministers. With economic growth returning to the region, our respondents are fairly optimistic. However, expectations for growth diverged significantly between economies, with respondents most optimistic about the growth prospects for economies with relatively high vaccination rates.

He underscored that achieving regional and global goals to reduce carbon requires major structural changes of the economy and major coordination across all parts of the APEC process – including the Finance Ministers’ Process. We are hopeful that APEC can provide a platform for dialogue to promote understanding on the comparability and compatibility of the actions economies are taking individually.