The Global Economy and the Group of 20

This article is from today's New York Times:

"The Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers met over the weekend here with the intent of laying the groundwork for a critical meeting of world leaders in Washington next Saturday to tackle the global financial crisis."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/business/worldbusiness/10g20.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

"Instead, Mr. da Silva and Mr. Mantega sought to assert the role of the Group of 20 in discussions typically dominated by the Group of 7 organization of advanced economies — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. The Group of 20, formed in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, is composed of the Group of 7 and 13 developing countries."

The countries in the Group of 20 (also known as the G-20) are the Group of 7 countries, named in the paragraph above, and Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, and the European Union. These are not the top 20 economies in the world, but together they account for 90% of global gross national product, 80% of world trade, and 2/3 of the world's population (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G20_industrial_nations). Individual members of the G-20 are the finance ministers and central bank governors of these countries, the president of the European Union (if the president's country is not already a member), and several other global economy leaders such as the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the president of the World Bank.

Brazil, Russia, India and China are collectively known as the BRIC countries. They are four of the world's fastest-developing nations, and would like to have more input into the issues facing the global economy. The head of the IMF agrees, saying that the only global growth that will occur next year will come from these countries and others like them.

The G-20 countries are facing economic problems because of the problems of the G-7 economies. The problems of one country, or a few countries, cannot be isolated to just those countries. The global economy is too integrated for that.

For more information:

G-20: http://www.g20.org/G20/

International Monetary Fund: http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm

BRIC countries: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=a92MjLFTwrkg&refer=asia

The World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org/

The global economy: http://wage.wisc.edu/