As part of the French Presidency of the G7, economists Chong-En Bai, Gita Gopinath, Hélène Rey, and Axel Weber presented to the President of the Republic a report on global imbalances.
Chong-En Bai is Distinguished Professor of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Dean of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, Gita Gopinath is the Gregory and Ania Coffey Professor of Economics at Harvard University, Hélène Rey is the Lord Raj Bagri Professor of Economics at the London Business School, and Axel Weber is President of the Center for Financial Studies at Goethe University in Frankfurt.
At a time when our global economy is threatened by deep imbalances, the President of the Republic has made the restoration of balanced and sustainable growth for all a priority of the French G7 Presidency.
Predatory competition, industrial overcapacity, underinvestment, excessive debt and deregulation, the retreat of international solidarity, and weak private investment in developing countries: these imbalances threaten the prosperity and economic stability of nations, generate trade tensions, and undermine the spirit of cooperation among peoples. They fuel protectionist tendencies to the detriment of all and carry the seeds of financial, economic, and geopolitical crises.
This report, the result of several months of work by economists recognized for their expertise in international macroeconomics, provides a diagnosis of these imbalances and offers recommendations to reduce excessive global imbalances through a cooperative and multilateral approach.
G7 Economists Memo on Global Imbalances.