Thus far in 2015 macroeconomic developments have been dominated by uncertainties: for example, in the euro zone because of the continuing severe sovereign debt problems of Greece; and in China because of concerns over output growth prospects, high volatility in domestic equity markets and investor concern that banking system stability is being eroded by a large and growing portfolio of non-performing loans. In the face of these challenges coordination of macroeconomic policies appears, if anything, to have weakened somewhat over the course of the year. Not surprisingly, no major countries have shown a willingness to adjust their policies with a view to strengthening the global macroeconomic outlook. Policy uncertainty has also been added by the reluctance of the US Federal Reserve to begin normalizing its policy interest rate from the current highly accommodative level to a more neutral stance, despite the recent strengthening trend of growth and employment in United States economy.

Coordinated by the Financial Stability Board, financial regulators have continued to make progress in elaborating the design of the G20’s seven-year initiative to reform the global architecture of financial regulation. Nevertheless, many lacunae remain to be addressed in order to complete the design. For example, in the runup to the G20 Antalya Summit it will be crucial to obtain the empirical results for the quantitative impact assessments of the proposed new rules for total loss absorbing capital of global systemically-important banks and other financial institutions. But even if this goal is met, the main challenge in achieving the G20 leaders’ ambitious financial regulatory objectives will be to ensure internationally harmonized implementation of key financial regulatory reforms across G20 member jurisdictions.

The many initiatives that are being announced in terms of development goals, investment targets, and sectoral initiatives cannot mask the fact that little concrete progress is being made on the ground.