Finance chiefs from the Group of 20 countries stressed the importance of central bank independence while pledging to boost cooperation in a communique they issued on Friday after a two-day meeting in South Africa.

An independent Federal Reserve in recent decades has increasingly served as an anchor for global markets, stepping in to steady the ship during the 2008-09 financial crisis, the Covid pandemic and other shocks of recent years.

Finance chiefs from the Group of 20 countries stressed the importance of central bank independence in a communique issued on Friday following a two-day meeting in South Africa's coastal city of Durban.