International News

TOKYO, (APP/AFP) – The lacklustre global economy should
take centre stage as world leaders gather in Japan this week, but with no agreement likely on igniting growth, Barack Obama’s visit to the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima looks set to capture the limelight.
A gathering Chinese slowdown, weak oil prices and the looming threat
of Britain’s exit from the European Union will provide the backdrop for the
meeting of the Group of Seven.
Waiting in the wings for the club of rich democracies is the familiar
litany of problems: Islamist terrorism, the disintegrating states of the Middle East and Europe’s refugee crisis.
Each member of the G7 will bring their own issues and their own
solutions to the gathering at Ise-Shima, 300 kilometres (200 miles) southwest of Tokyo.
But differences on how to breathe life into the world economy —
whether to boost spending, as favoured by hosts Japan, or to follow Germany’s prescription and cut debt — mean a unified response is unlikely to emerge.
“The reality is the global economy is weak, uncertain and
unbalanced,” said Matthew Goodman, senior adviser for Asian economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“And so that’s their really top issue… how to get growth going.”
A weekend meeting of G7 finance and central bank chiefs in Japan
could only agree that individual nations should act in their own best interest, highlighting the difficulties they face in forging policy consensus.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the summit host, has struggled to
jump-start his own economy after more than three years in office.
That’s despite a kit of unconventional policy tools including
unprecedented easing and a negative interest rate that has also been tried by the European Central Bank.