G20 to forgo issuing statement after Monday's call - source

The Group of 20 finance leaders will not issue a statement after Monday's teleconference, a G20 source told Reuters, underscoring the challenge they face in garnering a consensus on how to deal with the rising economic risk from the coronavirus outbreak. The talks, which are scheduled for 1100 GMT, comes as the G20 faces pressure to take coordinated action against a pandemic that has jolted markets and stoked fears of a global recession.

At the teleconference, the G20 finance leaders are expected to prepare for a summit complicated by an oil price war between two members, Saudi Arabia and Russia, and a war of words between two others, the United States and China. Saudi Arabia, which chairs this year's G20, has announced a plan to hold an extraordinary virtual leaders' summit this week "to put forward a coordinated set of policies to protect people and safeguard the global economy." Compared with the smaller, tight-knit G7 group of advanced economies, the G20 consists of big emerging nations like China that makes it harder to reach a consensus on the quick-moving crisis, analysts say.

"The conference call will probably have a feature unique to the G20," a Japanese finance ministry official told reporters on Monday.