What is the G-20?
The formal title is the Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, and it is composed of 19 of the world’s most important national economies, plus the European Union. Its members have about two-thirds of the world’s population and control some 85 percent of the world’s economic output. Isn’t there also a G-7? What’s the difference? The G-7 is made up of the world’s industrialized powers the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom while the G-20 adds developing economies such as Brazil and Argentina in South America; China, India, South Korea and Indonesia in Asia; and Mexico, Australia, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. The G-20 was created in 1999, and because it includes so many economic and political systems, it has become the steering committee for the world’s economy and a key forum to discuss diplomatic differences. How often does it meet? It used to be that only finance ministers and the governors of central ban
