G20 Economic Policy

The G20 (or Group of Twenty) is an international body established to manage the global economy, and includes members from developing economies.This reference set examines the issues facing developing countries and studies the role that the G20 can play in light of continuing challenges and objectives to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).Volume 1 sets out the state of the world economy and the intricate functions of the G20 in policy coordination and economic cooperation. It also deals with the interests and strategies of some developing country members of the G20. These chapters answer questions such as what the country expects from the G20, the strategies adopted to achieve its ends, the extent to which it sees itself as a representative of developing countries in its region and how does it seek to represent them.The G20 has also centred its efforts around helping countries achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Volume 2 concentrates on trade issues and the prospects of achieving the SDGs. In this context, it examines whether the SDGs themselves are a desirable goal in terms of what the nature of development is which underlies these goals.

This book discusses issues such as global financial crisis and global governance, food security, energy sustainability, the global financial system, trade and protectionism, and growth and employment. Since the outbreak of the financial as well as national debt crises in the Euro zone, the focus of the G20 has shifted back to addressing short-term issues. These issues range from the dynamic effects of global imbalances and the appropriate degree of financial sector regulation to questions of austerity versus growth and the lack of a comprehensive framework for managing the international monetary system. A further issue is the relevance of the G20 agenda for emerging market economies. Global economic recovery still remains fragile and downside risks to global growth remain. Additionally, much of the agenda of the Seoul Development Consensus for shared growth launched in 2010 has yet to be fulfilled. A key discussion point in the book, therefore, is how to make a tangible and significant difference in peoples’ lives by implementing an agenda of inclusive growth.​

The book discusses contemporary issues such as global financial architecture and regulatory practices, trade, investment and the multilateral process, the future of work, the role of technology for adaptation and mitigation of climate change, and financing infrastructure for sustainable development. With increasing global connectivity, events in one part of the world immediately affect or spread to the other parts. In this context, G20 has proved to be an effective forum, particularly after the Asian financial crises. Furthermore, over recent decades, G20 has been instrumental in managing financial crises and international conflicts by deploying global cooperation as a functional tool. As a body responding to crises, the G20 has played a central role in providing the political momentum for the strong international cooperation that ensured greater policy coherence and helped ease situations that could otherwise have been decidedly worse. The G20’s agendas have encompassed short-term but critical issues of economic recovery, the sovereign crisis of Europe, high unemployment and financial sector regulation. But since moderate stabilization in the global economic environment, the focus of the group has also embraced long-term areas of governance and development. For emerging economies, such as India, the G20 has been an important platform framework to promote an inclusive global economic architecture that seeks to achieve equitable outcomes. This book reviews the past 20 years of the G20, since it was conceptualized as a replacement for the G-7. While issues such as global financial order have been a constant area of discussion, one of the failures has been not recognizing and acknowledging the importance of issues like trade, climate change and future of work. Featuring academic papers by experts in the area, this book provides a platform for the necessary discourse on these issues.

The G20 needs to be bold and pragmatic if it is to deal effectively with the global economy’s big issues. Since its establishment in 1999, the G20 has become a key international forum. But it suffers from inherent design flaws and remains a work in progress. When Australia began its presidency of the 2014 summit in Brisbane, many commentators suggested that Australia’s chairing of the G20 would reinvigorate it. This timely book looks at what was achieved at the Brisbane Summit and what has happened in its wake. Crucially, it explores what role the G20 could and should play in dealing with such pressing global issues as international taxation, trade, energy and climate change. Expert contributors, many of them former inside players, assess the impact of the summit in the context of the year’s broader geopolitical challenges, including Russia’s temporary expulsion from the G8 and the failure of the US to ratify its governance reforms to the IMF. Taking stock, contributors question the effectiveness of the G20, and identify the reforms that are needed if it is to offer strong leadership in an integrated global economy. Together they ask, what is the future of the G20 and other ‘Gs’?

This book examines the statistics of the G-20 members with the goal of providing an analysis of their economic policies, with a particular emphasis on the financial dynamics of each country's Balance of Payments, in order to offer a framework for better understanding where we are headed in an era of great economic and geopolitical reconfiguration. Furthermore, it delves into the current challenges to the US-led monopolar world that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union, beginning with the rise of China and India alongside Russia, and their potential role in reshaping the global financial system. The focus also extends to South America, where economies such as Brazil and Argentina are navigating complex relationships with traditional allies and emerging global powers. Africa's position in this evolving landscape is also analyzed, highlighting its growing autonomy as exemplified by the African Union's inclusion in the G-20. Furthermore, the Middle East is undergoing a remarkable geopolitical shift, undoubtedly representing another node of power in the emerging economic chessboard. These geopolitical dynamics are further complicated by major global events, including the 2008 global financial crisis, the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the Russo-Ukrainian conflict in 2022. Pressing challenges are also posed by the climate emergency, highlighting its direct impact on productivity and migration patterns. Finally, this book seeks to contribute to a nuanced understanding of the current economic realities of key global actors and their complex interplay with geopolitical choices. Based on a scholarly approach, the analysis provides insights into the complex and evolving global order.

The book delineates the possible barriers to India's enhanced involvement in the G20, and in global governance in general.

This book offers the most thorough, detailed inside story of the preparation, negotiation, performance, and achievements of G20 gatherings from their start at the finance level in 1999 through their rise to become leader-level summits in response to the great global financial crisis in 2008. Follow the moves of America’s George Bush and Barack Obama, Britain’s Gordon Brown and David Cameron, Canada’s Stephen Harper, Germany’s Angela Merkel, and other key leaders as they struggle to contain the worst global recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. This book provides a full chapter-long account of each of the first four G20 summits from Washington to Toronto with summaries of the ensuing summits. It uses international relations theory to build and apply a model of systemic hub governance to back its central claim to show convincingly that G20 performance has grown to successfully govern an increasingly interconnected, complex, crisis-ridden, globalized twenty-first century world.

At the outbreak of the global financial crisis, 2008, the G20 was widely acknowledged as helping prevent an even more serious decline in the global economy. It helped to calm the panic in financial markets and articulate a set of possible policy options to restore global stability and growth. However, as the dual-track recovery set in, policy options for advanced economies and EMEs diverged. Within this context, this book will explore the scope for cooperation amongst the G20 and the diverging challenges and the intricate interconnectedness of policy options between advanced economies and the EMEs within the G20.