This week was the unique opportunity for the rest of the world to make its economic case to US President Donald Trump’s administration directly at the Spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank – taking place in Washington DC just down the road from the White House.
The sense I got speaking to the majority of G7 finance ministers, some central bankers, and some of the world’s top financiers was unhappiness about the rest of the world picking up the inadvertent but predictable costs of the US’s decision to go to war.
It was the Chancellor Rachel Reeves who was especially vocal on the “folly” and “mistake” of war “which is not ours”.
The meetings of finance ministers such as the G20 breakfast were sombre affairs. According to participants, the United States was the only voice in the room projecting short-term confidence.
Asian financiers in particular displayed clear worry “about real shortages of energy,” according to those in the room. Shortly after multiple concerns were expressed around the breakfast table, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent popped up on US financial TV to say there was nothing to worry about. Markets and the economy would recover fast, he said.
