The G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in Shanghai last weekend lived up to traditionally low expectations when it came to co-ordinating policy. Although this charge has stood for some time, it may have been more loaded this time round because of the unfavourable global backdrop against which the meeting was held.
Policymakers were certainly mindful of faltering economic growth, market turbulence, policy frictions between them, and new geopolitical tensions, in which they included the European migration crisis. The U.K. Chancellor also managed to persuade the G20 to include the risk of Britain voting to leave the EU - a risk which the government itself had created by setting up a referendum in the first place. In any event, though, this cocktail of background factors deserved more attention than it received.
