WASHINGTON: The Group of 20 economic powers on Friday urged the global adoption of standards for sharing bank account information in an effort to fight tax evasion and curtail banking secrecy.

The G20 said they “strongly encourage” all countries to sign on to a commitment to the automatic exchange of banking information “which is expected to be the standard,” in the group’s strongest endorsement yet of a move that takes aim especially at tax havens.

“More needs to be done to address the issues of international tax avoidance and evasion, in particular through tax havens, as well as non-cooperative jurisdictions,” the G20 said in a statement on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings.

It urged all countries to accept the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, a framework for the sharing of banking data.

“We welcome progress made towards automatic exchange of information which is expected to be the standard and urge all jurisdictions to move towards exchanging information automatically with their treaty partners, as appropriate.”

Sustainable growth:

The group also noted that major crises have been overcome but that more efforts are needed to strengthen global growth. “We reaffirmed our determination to raise growth and create jobs,” the group said.

“The global economy has avoided some major tail risks and financial market conditions continue to improve. However, global growth has continued to be too weak and unemployment remains too high in many countries.”

“We have agreed that while progress has been made, further actions are required to make growth strong, sustainable and balanced.” The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors said the global economy is still held back by uncertain government policies, still-heavy private and public debt loads, impaired bank lending, and “incomplete rebalancing” of global demand a push on surplus economies like Germany and Japan to stimulate more local demand.

But they also urged the United States and Japan, both undertaking strong efforts to expand domestic demand, to quickly fashion “credible” medium-term plans for reeling in their huge debt and deficit loads.

“We will continue to implement ambitious structural reforms to increase our growth potential and create jobs,” the group added.

Spillover concerns:

The unprecedented level of monetary stimulus designed to reinvigorate struggling large economies, including the US, the eurozone and Japan, has raised concerns about excessive capital flight to developing nations.

In a communiqué on Thursday, the Group of 24 developing nations, whose ranks include Brazil, India, South Africa and Mexico, called on the advanced economies to “take into account the negative spillover effects ... of prolonged unconventional monetary policies including on inflation and the volatility of capital flows and commodity prices.”

“There is a call from the G24 members to have clear coordination and better communication between advanced economies and emerging markets ... towards using coordination as a way to mitigate these potential asset appreciation bubbles.—Agencies