Finance chiefs and central bank governors from the Group of 20 economies will opened their two-day meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali on Friday, July 15, 2022.
The meeting’s agenda will include inflation, which Western nations have been accelerating worldwide due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Another major factor that has been contributing to the spike in energy and food costs is supply chain and distribution disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Data released by the US government on Wednesday show that the country’s consumer prices surged 9.1 percent year-on-year last month to the highest level in about 40-and-a-half years.
Prices have also been climbing steeply in other parts of the world despite central banks raising key interest rates. This has been putting further pressure on people’s lives.
The rate increases in major economies have been denting the value of emerging countries’ currencies, fueling concerns that investors may move funds away from them.
The US and European countries accuse Russia of contributing to the soaring inflation by launching the invasion. But Russia blames sanctions imposed by Western nations on the country.
The G20 framework includes countries with close ties to Russia, such as China and India. Observers are watching to see whether delegates to the meeting will be able to cooperate to address the inflation and other issues.
