The finance track of the G20 met on Thursday in Bangkok, not Washington, in a session that says as much about who is missing as about what is on the table. The United States holds the group’s rotating presidency this year, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stayed home for what officials called domestic engagements ahead of the November midterms. It is the second G20 gathering he has skipped, after last year’s meeting in South Africa. Washington is represented by Deputy Secretary Francis Brooke and Under Secretary for International Affairs Erin Browne, and Bessent’s views arrived in a written statement to the IMF committees calling for stronger scrutiny of trade imbalances and exchange rate practices.
The venue is the IMF and World Bank annual meetings, running October 12 to 18 in the Thai capital, where the Banca d’Italia schedule confirms Thursday packed the G7 finance ministers meeting under the French presidency, the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting under the US presidency, and the World Bank and IMF Development Committee into a single day, with the IMFC following on October 16 and 17. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said about 18,000 people had registered for the week, and that several other finance ministers were also absent on domestic budget and election duties, though most central bankers attended.
The agenda is dominated by the war. The US and Israeli war with Iran is in its eighth month, the Strait of Hormuz closure has cut off about 20 percent of world oil supply, and oil has held above 100 dollars a barrel for most of that period. Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he would use the meeting to call for an end to the Middle East conflicts and the reopening of Hormuz, arguing the war is pushing up fuel prices, inflation and interest rates worldwide. The G7 reserve release of 100 million barrels, agreed earlier under US pressure, forms the backdrop rather than a new decision.
Debt is the second headline. Public debt exceeds 100 percent of GDP in the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy and France, and Georgieva warned on Wednesday that the United States cannot grow its way out of its debt without tax or spending changes, while China needs to shift from export led growth toward consumption. Whether the meeting can speak with one voice is doubtful: the previous finance ministers meeting in Asheville on August 31 and September 1 ended without a joint communique after China objected to proposed trade language, and Thursday’s session helps set the agenda for the leaders summit in Miami on December 14 and 15. Status: meeting in session, no communique yet issued.