G20 finance chiefs meet to calm jitters over China slowdown

G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the world’s top 20 economies met in Turkey on Friday hoping to calm the nerves of markets rattled by China’s slowing performance and the prospect of a US rate hike. The finance chiefs gathered for the two-day meeting in Ankara under Turkey’s G20 presidency – a role that in 2016 goes to China – at a time of some alarming indicators from the global economy, in particular from key emerging markets.

China should allow its exchange rate to reflect underlying fundamentals, avoid persistent exchange rate misalignments, and refrain from competitive devaluation.

US Treasury Spokesperson.

As well as China, markets have also been shaken by uncertainty over the future monetary policy of the Fed. Markets have for months been speculating about the possibility of an interest rate rise, which could be justified on the grounds of the robustness of the US economy. But a tightening of US monetary policy would also have the effect of hoovering up liquidity from the global economy – bad news for key emerging markets like Brazil and Russia which are in a deep slump.

Business G20