History of the G7: A summit of industrial economies

World Today

The world economy, terrorism, and the migrant crisis are on the agenda at the G-7 summit in Japan. CCTV’s Jack Barton reports on the summit’s history.

In 1975 an oil crisis as well as lingering exchange rate turmoil caused by U.S. President Richard Nixon decoupling the dollar from gold prompted officials from six advanced economies to gather for informal talks near Paris.

Those countries were Britain, France, the former West Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

The next year Canada joined the club, which officially became the Group of Seven, then the G-8 when Russia later joined and then the back to the G-7 again when Russia was ejected two years ago as a result of the crisis in Ukraine.

Unlike the far more inclusive G-20 the smaller club includes only one non-Western power.

By some estimates G-7 nations account for more than 64 percent of net global wealth, 46 percent of global GDP and 32 percent of the world’s purchasing power.

The G-7 are generally like-minded nations that meet on a ministerial level up to four times a year to better coordinate the creation and implementation of policies usually with common goals.

Issues including global economic risks, trade, the refugee crisis, terrorism, tax evasion and climate change have taken prominence at recent gatherings


G7 leaders gather in Japan to discuss economy, refugee crisis

The G-7 leaders kicked off the annual meet with a visit to the spiritual center of Japan.

CCTV’s Terrence Terashima has the details on the first day of the two-day talks.

The G-7 leaders are in unity on number of topics, such as combating terrorism, tax evasion and refugees. However, reaching an agreement on fiscal policy to revitalize sluggish global economy was not as easy as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had hoped for.

Abe was hoping to show Japan’s initiative by taking the lead in tackling the sluggish global economy.

The Prime Minister said to have presented data, showing the global economy is almost as severe as so called the “Lehman Shock” in 2008″ urging for an appropriate action.

“We rigorously debated the global economy this time, and we agree that it faces a great risk, at this moment,” Abe said.

Regional concerns are preventing from the G7 members to reach a full agreement.

Concerns over Britain’s referendum whether to exit the European Union also raised concerns. The outcome of the referendum could impact the markets. Japan fears that the outcome of the referendum may spur purchase of the Japanese currency, which will impact domestic sentiment, further weighing down on Japan’s economic recovery.

The G-7 leaders are expected to reaffirm their commitment to stability in the foreign exchange market.