The G20 finance ministers will gather in Brazil on Wednesday to discuss strategies to support the world economy, which is experiencing a fledgling rebound but is being threatened by a number of crises and conflicts, such as the battles in Gaza and Ukraine.
With the G7 meeting scheduled on the sidelines to discuss strengthening Western support against Russia’s invasion, the Ukraine war may take center stage. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has described a “urgent” proposal to use frozen Russian assets to increase aid for Kyiv.
The two-day meeting in Sao Paulo will bring together Yellen, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, IMF Chief Kristalina Georgieva, and other prominent figures in economic policy-making. However, organizers told AFP that some notable absences will occur, including the finance ministers of China, India, Britain, and Russia.
After arriving with Covid-19, the meeting’s host, Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, will speak via video conference, according to the organizers.
The economic risks posed by the cost-of-living crisis, climate change and the conflict in the Middle East will also be on the agenda as finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of 20 leading economies hold their first meeting of the year.
Brazil, which took over the rotating G20 presidency from India in December, also wants to use the two-day meeting to pressure for progress on fighting poverty, alleviating low-income nations’ crushing debt burdens, and giving developing countries more say at institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
International taxation also features on the agenda, amid global wrangling on how to deal with a so-called “race to the bottom” where some countries woo corporations and the super-rich with ultra-low tax rates.
The meeting, which follows one by foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro last week, will start laying the economic policy groundwork for the annual G20 leaders’ summit, to be held in Rio in November.
“There are a lot of issues on the table, and we face challenges on all of them,” said the Brazilian official coordinating the G20 finance meetings, Tatiana Rosito.
“Our aim is to seek consensus and propose issues for dialogue,” she told AFP. “What we’re doing is setting the tone for dialogue and looking to build progress together.”
