By Leigh Thomas, David Lawder and Makiko Yamazaki
PARIS, May 18 (Reuters) – G7 finance ministers met in Paris on Monday, looking to find common ground on tackling economic tensions and global imbalances in the wake of a bond market selloff triggered by concern over inflation risks from the Iran war.
Ministers are set to discuss the economic fallout from the conflict and volatility on global bond markets, which are of particular concern to Japan. Bonds from Tokyo to New York extended losses on Monday, with investors betting on central bank rate hikes over worries that rising energy prices could stoke inflation.
Asked if bond markets were collapsing, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said “they’re undergoing a correction – I wouldn’t say they’re collapsing”.
“We are no longer in a period where public debt is not a subject,” he told reporters as he arrived at the meeting.
DIVISIONS IN G7 SET STAGE FOR TRICKY MEETING
The meeting, which will also be attended by representatives from G7 central banks, will tackle how countries can co-ordinate their response to shocks such as inflation through temporary, targeted and reversible measures, the French finance ministry said.
Asked on arrival if she was worried by the bond selloff, European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde told reporters: “I always worry, that’s my job.”
The G7 finance ministers will try to find common ground on tackling global economic tensions and coordinating critical raw material supplies. But divisions within the G7 complicate efforts to project unity as ministers prepare for a June 15-17 leaders summit in the spa town of Evian.
At the core of the Paris agenda will be what Lescure described prior to the meeting as deep-seated global economic imbalances that are fuelling trade friction and risk a turbulent unwinding in financial markets.
“The way the global economy has been developing for the past 10 years or so is clearly unsustainable,” he said, pointing to a pattern in which China under-consumes, the United States over-consumes and Europe under-invests.
UPDATE ON TRUMP-XI SUMMIT
Lescure, who will host the talks, said the G7 offered an opportunity for frank dialogue among allies at a time of widening disagreements with Washington.
“These discussions are not easy. I’m not going to tell you that we agree on everything, including, of course, first and foremost with our American friends,” he told journalists ahead of the meeting.
The two-day meeting follows a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing that yielded few concrete economic breakthroughs, as tensions over Taiwan and trade simmered beneath a display of diplomatic cordiality.
Finance ministers will be looking for an update on U.S.-China relations following the Trump-Xi summit and the latest U.S. efforts to re-open the Strait of Hormuz, as the Trump administration allowed a sanctions waiver on Russian seaborne oil to lapse on Saturday.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the trip to China had been very successful, adding that he would urge the G7 to follow sanctions to target Iran’s “war machine”.
Merely agreeing each side bears some responsibility for the trade and capital flow imbalances would be a success, French officials involved in preparations said, though the U.S. side is likely to be reluctant.
CRITICAL MINERAL DEPENDENCE
Another priority will be critical minerals and rare earths, where G7 governments are trying to coordinate efforts to reduce reliance on China, which dominates supply chains vital for technologies such as electric vehicles, renewable energy and defence systems.
Lescure said the G7 would push for stronger coordination to monitor markets, anticipate disruptions and develop alternative supplies, including through joint projects spanning allied economies. The aim is to ensure that “no country can ever again have a monopoly” over such materials, he said.
G7 countries are trying to make progress on a common toolbox of measures to stabilise markets and encourage domestic investment, possibly through price floors for producers, pooled purchases and also tariffs.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas, David Lawder, Alistair Smout, Makiko Yamazaki and Michel Rose; Additional reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by David Holmes and Alison Williams)
Comments