Uncomfortably high
oil prices, unsustainable sovereign debt burdens, and Japan’s uncertain
future cloud the global economic outlook, as world finance leaders
gathered yesterday.
Group of Seven
members, who met behind closed doors in the evening, tried to assess
the economic damage from Japan’s earthquake to uprisings in the Arab
world.
“There’s very high
uncertainty about Japan’s outlook,” said Naoyuki Shinohara, deputy
managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
The larger G20 club
of advanced and developing economies held a working dinner later to
push forward a plan for building a more stable global economy less
prone to the booms and busts that have marked the last two decades.
Neither groups is expected to release a statement with the G2O waiting until it wraps up a day-long meeting today.
France chairs the G20 this year.
