AFP, Beijing :
G20 leaders will meet in China this weekend in a climate of economic uncertainty and sluggish global growth — but the absence of an urgent crisis means the forum will be short on breakthroughs, analysts say.
Eight years after the first G20 summit in Washington, when countries coordinated a response to the financial meltdown, Beijing has set a modest agenda for the Hangzhou gathering — focusing on making the world economy “innovative, invigorated, interconnected, and inclusive”.
But as countries’ economic needs diverge — the US is mulling a rate hike, Japan is toying with fresh easing, Germany is sceptical of fiscal stimulus, Chinese overcapacity remains huge, and Britain has voted to quit the EU — the prospects for major unified action are dim.
“At the moment there’s simply not a lot of common overlapping interests between the major economies,” Christopher Balding, professor of economics at Peking University HSBC Business School, told AFP.
G20 leaders will meet in China this weekend in a climate of economic uncertainty and sluggish global growth — but the absence of an urgent crisis means the forum will be short on breakthroughs, analysts say.
Eight years after the first G20 summit in Washington, when countries coordinated a response to the financial meltdown, Beijing has set a modest agenda for the Hangzhou gathering — focusing on making the world economy “innovative, invigorated, interconnected, and inclusive”.
But as countries’ economic needs diverge — the US is mulling a rate hike, Japan is toying with fresh easing, Germany is sceptical of fiscal stimulus, Chinese overcapacity remains huge, and Britain has voted to quit the EU — the prospects for major unified action are dim.
“At the moment there’s simply not a lot of common overlapping interests between the major economies,” Christopher Balding, professor of economics at Peking University HSBC Business School, told AFP.
