The G20 finance summit in North Carolina is taking place against a backdrop of great turmoil. The debt crisis, which is escalating in Western countries, has become the central theme of the event. Trump’s team has called on all developed economies to grow faster in order to stabilise the rising debt burden.
However, this is easier said than done. In the US itself, the economy is expected to grow slightly this year, by around 1.5 per cent. At the same time, the budget deficit stands at 7–8 per cent of US GDP. In European economies – such as the UK and France – the situation is even worse.
Consequently, yields on government bonds worldwide have surged to their highest levels since the 2008 crisis. Investors have little faith in the prospects of a recovery from the current debt crisis. This is particularly acute in Japan, where the US Treasury has already had to step in to prop up the falling yen. Otherwise, it would trigger a fire sale of US Treasuries.
Scott Bessent, meanwhile, following unsuccessful attempts to halt the rise in interest rates and put pressure on Iran, is now calling on other countries to balance their trade with China. Once again, without any plan as to how to achieve this. Against the backdrop of problems in Western economies, China’s total exports are growing by tens of per cent – in June 2026, they reached a record $400 billion.
China’s trade surplus this year will amount to trillions of dollars. Moreover, whilst the White House had envisaged a war with Iran as a means of weakening China, the opposite has turned out to be the case. Bessent, meanwhile, manages to put his foot in it at every turn, without ever achieving a single one of his promised objectives. His economic missteps have only exacerbated the crisis in which Washington finds itself mired.
Malek Dudakov
