Pittsburgh: The end of G7

New York Times announces the end of G7: Global Economic Forum to Expand Permanently. From the article:

Global leaders will announce Friday that the once elite club of rich industrial nations known as the Group of 7 will be permanently replaced as a global forum for economic policy by the much broader Group of 20 that includes China, Brazil, India and other fast-growing developing countries, the White House said. more...

Publikationshinweis

Ein kurzer Leitartikel im Wirtschaftsdienst - Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik ist jetzt online:

Die G-20 in London: Twitter-Gipfel oder historische Wende?
 

IWF plant eigene Anleihe

Dies wird eine echt Innovation in der internationalen Finanzwelt: Der IWF plant die Begebung einer eigenen Anleihe, um seine Finanzmittel aufzustocken. Hier die Nachricht bei der Financial Times Deutschland: IWF plant erstmals eigene Anleihe. Und hier bei Bloomberg: IMF Considers Bond Issue to Raise Funds for Lending Programs. China hat seine Unterstützung schon angekündigt: China backs possible IMF bond issue.

Der IWF würde damit ein Stückchen mehr wie die Weltbank, die sich schon länger über Anleihen an den internationalen Kapitalmärkten finanziert. Der IWF dagegen hat sich traditionell aus direkten Einzahlungen seiner Mitgliedsländer finanziert.

Das Ende des Washington Consensus?

Jonathan Holslag, Research Fellow des Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies, beerdigt den sog. Washington Consensus: 'Washington Consensus' a thing of the past now. Textauszug:

... the “Washington Consensus” about how the global economy should be run is now a thing of the past. ... the Obama administration is clearly moving towards the kind of government intervention that China has been promoting over the past two decades. In this model, the government, while continuing to benefit from the international market, retains power over the economy’s “commanding heights” through strict control over the financial sector, restrictive government procurement policies, guidance for research and development in the energy sector, and selective curbs on imports of goods and services.
...
As the US backtracks on its liberal standards, it is flirting with what can be called the “Beijing Consensus”, which makes economic development a country’s paramount goal and prescribes that states should actively steer growth in a way that suits national stability. What matters in this worldview is not the nature of any country’s political system, but the extent to which it improves its people’s wellbeing. At the diplomatic level, this implies that national interests, not universal norms, should drive co-operation. mehr...

Starker Tobak!

PS: Als Abrundung hier Hintergrundinformationen zum Washington Consensus.

Neue Webseite mit Wirtschaftsdaten der G20

Eine neue Webseite eröffnet den Zugang zu den wichtigsten Wirtschaftsdaten der G20: Principal Global Indicators.

Initiator der neuen Webseite ist (wie die Bundesbank meldet) die Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics. Sie wurde Ende 2008 ins Leben gerufen und setzt sich aus Vertretern der Bank für Internationalen Zahlungsausgleich (BIZ), der Europäischen Zentralbank (EZB), von Eurostat, des Internationalen Währungsfonds (IWF), der Organisation für wirtschaftlicheZusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (OECD), der Vereinten Nationen (UN) sowie der Weltbank zusammen. Den Vorsitz führt der IWF.

Vgl. dazu auch die Pressemeldung des IWF: Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics Launches G-20 Statistical Website

G20 Website

The official website of the G20 is expanding:

https://www.g20.org/index.aspx

There is now a public area with publications and other information sources. The website states that

... as Chair of the G20 in 2009 the UK, working closely with Brazil and Korea 2008 and 2010 Chairs respectively, has established four working groups to advance this work for the next Leaders Summit on 2 April in London. Each working group is co-chaired by two senior officials from the G20, one from a developed and one from an emerging market economy. Each G20 country is represented on each working group. Experts from relevant international financial institutions, standard setting bodies, non G20 countries, business and academia have also been invited by co-chairs to input into the work of the groups.

The four working groups are

Working Group 1 - Enhancing sound regulation and strengthening transparency
Working Group 2 - Reinforcing international co-operation and promoting integrity in financial markets
Working Group 3 - Reforming the IMF
Working Group 4 - The World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs)

The forthcoming London summit has its own website: http://www.londonsummit.gov.uk/en/