G20 finance ministers meet to seek consensus before US election

22/7/2024 19:42

        Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 meet this week to renew efforts to reach consensus on economic policy ahead of the U.S. election, and will avoid discussing the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to try to prevent them dominating the talks.
        
        Negotiators from the G20 major economies have agreed to leave discussion of the conflicts out of a joint statement by the finance leaders gathering on July 25-26 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian diplomats said last week.
        
        A meeting of the same ministers and central bankers in Sao Paulo in February failed to issue a joint statement, after Russia and major Western nations were unable to agree how to describe the war in Ukraine and Israel's shelling of Gaza.
        
        The new approach may help to shift the focus to economic cooperation on issues such as climate change and poverty. Two Brazilian government officials said the hosts also hoped to achieve an increase in support for a proposed global tax on the super-rich that Brazil has made a priority of its G20 presidency.