The Group of Seven, convened again in Rome, has ceding its traditional power to rebuild the world economy to a broader body of governments that now wield greater sway over global growth., the Group of Twenty. The U.S. Treasury Secretary and European Central Bank President joined their G-7 counterparts, for the discussions but it is the G-20 that now occupies the responsibility in responding to the world financial crisis.
The shift in influence to the G-20, whose members range from the USA to China to Saudi Arabia, reflects the fact that industrial nations alone lack the resources to fix the world’s economic problems. That curbs the G-7’s scope to deliver new initiatives this week, say economists and former officials. “The world has changed,” says Paul Martin, Canada’s former prime and finance minister who attended G-7 meetings and helped establish the G-20 a decade ago. “The G-20 reflects the realities of the global economy. Its finance ministers are becoming the dominant policy-making body.”
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