The heads of the world’s top central banks and departments of finance will gather in Gandhinagar, India, the next week to discuss the hazards of Russia’s protracted conflict in Ukraine and yet another tilt towards starting interest rate hikes again.
The Group of 20 countries are holding conversations as the conflict drags on for close to 17 months, slowing the world economy and keeping policymakers on edge over surging prices and sluggish GDP. The G-20 leaders are also looking at cryptocurrency regulation and methods to get more climate financing.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund will be under pressure to strengthen their financial standing and deal with the effects of climate change and potential pandemics. The G-20 summit will build on the talks held in Paris last month.
The main topics of discussion for the important meetings on Monday and Tuesday are listed below…
Words of war
India struggled to get countries to agree on wording around the conflict as the G-20 president, and it is attempting to accomplish a chair summary at the end of next week’s meetings. Given that India was unable to obtain a statement at the most recent meeting of finance ministers in April, it is a challenging task.
“On all items in core agenda, common ground was found, except for the impact of war between Russia and Ukraine on the world economy,” India’s Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth said on Thursday.
Interest Rate Conundrum
Global monetary officials’ positions are becoming more and more divergent, especially when it comes to inflation. The threat of deflation is forcing China to explore more easing, whilst high price increases are keeping US and European central banks in a mode of tightening.
Multilateral Reforms
With Janet Yellen as the Treasury Secretary spearheading the campaign, a reorganisation of the World Bank and the IMF will be on the table. As the issues facing the world grow, she has pushed the development lenders to work even more to raise private financing.
Crypto Regulations
Bankrupt FTX Trading Ltd. and other prominent crypto-asset market failures over the past year have compelled authorities, such as the Financial Stability Board and the IMF, to examine ways to put international norms into place.
“We must avoid a globally fragmented system of regulation that would allow crypto-asset activities to flow to the areas where regulation is less stringent,” said FSB Chair Klaas Knot in a letter to G-20 Finance Ministers ahead of the meeting. “This will require a further strengthening of cross-border cooperation and information sharing.”
