2023-05-11 02:22:14
Finance ministers and central bankers from the G7, as well as major global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, are meeting for three days of discussions in Niigata (central Japan), last big step before the summit of G7 leaders in Hiroshima (west) at the end of next week.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made the trip despite the difficult context in Washington, with negotiations on raising the US public debt still deadlocked, threatening the United States with a default in early June.
US President Joe Biden did not rule out Tuesday canceling his planned Asia-Pacific tour to start with the G7 summit in Hiroshima, if the deadlock on the debt in Congress persists by then.
Ms. Yellen should recall Thursday at a press conference the will of the members of the G7 (United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada) to support Ukraine as long as necessary and to strengthen the effectiveness of their sanctions once morest Russia.
“This year, a central element of our strategy is to take further steps to prevent Russia from evading our sanctions,” according to excerpts from Ms. Yellen’s speech released upstream by the Treasury Department.
The Niigata meeting might lead to new actions centered on third countries circumventing sanctions once morest Russia, “starting with China”, thinks John Kirton, director of the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto (Canada). ), interviewed by AFP.
More “intrusive” banking supervision?
The European Commission has just followed in the footsteps of the United States by submitting to EU member states an eleventh package of restrictive measures once morest Moscow, intended to prevent the circumvention of European sanctions.
Brussels is proposing, among other things, to target eight Chinese and Hong Kong companies for the first time, accused of re-exporting sensitive goods to Russia.
The recent turbulence in the banking sector in the United States and Europe and the means to contain it should be another dominant topic in Niigata, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said this week.
Differences might however appear between the United States and the Europeans of the G7, more inclined to strengthen regulations to avoid bank runs (“bank run”) accelerated by new technologies, according to Mr. Kirton.
Banking supervision must be more “intrusive” to prevent such crises, pleaded the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) Christine Lagarde in an interview with the Japanese economic daily Nikkei broadcast on Wednesday.
The fight once morest high inflation without derailing the economy, support for developing countries, cryptocurrencies or finance for energy transition and once morest climate risks will also be on the menu of the Niigata meeting.
Japan is particularly keen to invite other countries to the G7 meetings under its chairmanship this year. In addition to the Ukrainian finance minister’s online participation, finance ministers from India, Indonesia and Brazil will be present in Niigata, along with their counterparts from South Korea and Singapore.
This opening of the G7 is also seen as an attempt to counterbalance the own influence of Russia and especially China in various regions of the world.
The French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire did not make the trip to Japan, having been held back by a busy schedule in France.
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