The world's biggest economies are committed to taking a careful approach to unwinding support introduced during the coronavirus pandemic, Indonesia said Friday at a meeting of G20 finance chiefs.Some central banks, including in the United States (US), are moving towards hiking rates and withdrawing stimulus as economies rebound strongly from COVID-induced downturns and inflation surges.But there are concerns that aggressive policy tightening could knock a fragile recovery off course, and

The crisis in Ukraine is a serious threat to the global economy's post-pandemic recovery, Indonesia's leader on Thursday warned a meeting of finance chiefs from the G20 nations.The Group of 20 – which brings together the world's top economies including the United States (US), China and some European nations – is holding talks in hybrid format in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.Opening the two-day meeting, Indonesian President Joko Widodo warned of the risks to the fragile recove

China has faced criticism for its lending practices to poorer countries, accused of leaving them struggling to repay debts and therefore vulnerable to pressure from Beijing.But that is rejected by China, which accuses some in the West of promoting this narrative to tarnish its image.It says: "There is not a single country that has fallen into [a] so-called 'debt trap' as a result of borrowing from China."What Do We Know About China's Lending?China is one of the world&

As the year draws to an end, we looked back at some of the events that have marked the relationship between ASEAN and the European Union.

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has called for mutual recognition of COVID-19 vaccines based on the World Health Organization’s emergency use list, according to a transcript of his remarks delivered to leaders of the Group of 20 leaders’ summit, published by the official Xinhua news agency.Speaking to the participants in Rome via video link, Xi said China had provided more than 1.6 billion COVID shots to the world, and was working with 16 nations to cooperate on manufacturing doses.“China is w

Leaders of the world's most advanced nations met Saturday at the G20 summit in Rome hoping to hammer out a way forward on climate change and vaccine equality, with consensus still outstanding on the most pressing global issues. In their first in-person gathering since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the relaunch of the global economy will also be front and centre on the two-day agenda, while the bloc is likely to approve a minimum tax rate for the biggest multinationals.But

Billed as a chance for humanity to save itself from climate catastrophe, the United Nations (UN) COP26 summit starting Sunday will task world leaders with turning ambitions to restrain global heating into the actions needed to slash greenhouse gas emissions.With just over one-degree Celsius warming so far after 150 years of burning fossil fuels, the world is experiencing a rapid-fire onslaught of weather disasters supercharged by climate change.

Epidemiologists tell us that COVID-19 was not a “black swan.” In our lifetime, there will be pandemics that are equally if not more severe. And when the next one comes, China, Singapore, and maybe Vietnam will be better prepared because they have learned from this terrible experience. Pretty much everyone else, including most of the G20, will be just as vulnerable as they were when COVID-19 hit. But how can that be?

Last month, I lamented that the leaders of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) seem incapable of agreeing on coordinated policies that would benefit their own economies and the world.

Finance ministers, central bank governors, and political leaders are hard at work preparing for the 2021 G20 Heads of State and Government Summit in Rome on 30-31 October.