G20 Finance Ministers Discuss Global Economy Hit by Crises and Conflicts

(Patria) - G20 finance ministers are meeting today in Brazil, seeking ways to support the global economy whose recovery is threatened by a series of conflicts and crises, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, AFP reported.

The war in Ukraine could take center stage at the meeting, with G7 countries expected to meet on the sidelines to discuss strengthening Western support against the Russian invasion, including what US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called an "urgent" proposal to use frozen Russian assets to increase aid to Kyiv.

Yellen, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva, and other economic policymakers will gather in Sao Paulo for the two-day meeting, although there will be some absences, including the British, Chinese, Indian, and Russian delegations. Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, the host, will address the meeting via video conference as he has contracted coronavirus.

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, wants to use the two-day meeting to push for progress in fighting poverty, alleviating the debt burden of low-income countries, and giving developing countries more say in institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

International taxation is also on the agenda, amid global disputes over how to deal with some countries attracting corporations and the super-rich with ultra-low tax rates.

The meeting, which follows a gathering of foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro last week, will begin setting the economic policy groundwork for the G20 leaders' annual summit, to be held in Rio de Janeiro in November.

Established in 1999, the G20 accounts for more than 80 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP), three-quarters of world trade, and two-thirds of the world's population. In reality, it has 21 members: the 19 largest economies in the world, including both industrialized countries and emerging powers, plus the European Union and, for the first time this year, as a member, the African Union.