The United States takes its turn chairing the G20 finance track this week under distinctly awkward conditions.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh are hosting counterparts in the North Carolina mountains, following a deputies meeting held over the weekend, with the formal agenda covering economic growth, global imbalances, sovereign debt restructuring, banking regulation and energy security.
Asheville was chosen deliberately.
The city was devastated by Hurricane Helene in September 2024, a storm that killed more than 250 people and caused close to $80 billion (€69bn) in damage from Florida to the Carolinas, and Bessent has cited its rebuilding as a fitting backdrop for talks about economic growth.
"We want the rest of the world to come along with our growth agenda, whether it's deregulation, the energy independence [...]" he said, adding that "the world has this mountain of debt, and we do have to grow our way out of it," confirming public debt will feature prominently in the discussions.
