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The G7 countries meet in Biarritz in southwestern France from August 24 to 26 as the world economy breaks down and the leaders of the most advanced countries on the planet seem powerless to revive it.
Low growth, public debt, deterioration of credit, lower dividends ... the bad indicators accumulate on the eve of the G7. The economies of the United Kingdom and Germany, European champions, contracted in the second quarter.
China slows down , it imports less. In the United States, the yield curve has even reversed twice this month - they were lower in the long run than in the short run - a very bad omen, the recession.
Sino-US trade tensions, but also between Europe and the United States are staining, creating many uncertainties on exports, as well as Brexit.
But G7 political leaders and big money can scarcely go beyond what they have already agreed to support the economies: the European Commission has never been so lax about budget deficits and interest rates are still at the lowest, ten years after the financial crisis.
While the rise of digital struggles to create wealth and even widens inequalities, the governments of the most advanced countries are wondering about the new policies to take to revive the global economy. In the absence of China, it is doubtful that the G7 finds in Biarritz new miracle cures.
► Also to listen: Sébastien Jean: "We are in a context of slowing economic activity"
♦ The G7 of Biarritz, sequence of re-entry of Emmanuel Macron
Since Monday, Emmanuel Macron has multiplied diplomatic appointments: Vladimir Putin , Narendra Modi, Boris Johnson . This summit, the President of the Republic wants to make a showcase for France trying to give the image of a leader who shakes up habits.
With our special correspondent in Biarritz, Valérie Gas
Emmanuel Macron smiles and launches before the press a few days before the opening of the G7: "the press releases, nobody reads them ". Then in Biarritz, there will not be the traditional negotiated final declaration of hard struggle between the advisers of heads of state and often well below expectations.
There will only be a communiqué on the issues that have actually come forward. Emmanuel Macron does not want to be " the hostage of those who negotiate for him ". What he wants is to find informal discussions between the leaders. Speak directly in a " frank and useful " way, " take risks ". The G7 version Macron should be used to " bring minds together and rub the brains, " says the president himself.
Emmanuel Macron wants to shake up habits, expand the circle. To associate India , which is invited to Biarritz like seven other African countries, is for example trying to find a new ally in the fight against global warming.
The G7, Emmanuel Macron sees it as a " laboratory " of the reorganization of the world order in which he wants to give back his place to the individual - hence the choice of the theme of the fight against inequalities - and maintain the rank from France. A France he describes as " power of balance ", which refuses " submission " and talks with everyone in and beyond the G7.
♦ Crises and conflicts at the summit menu
With our special correspondent in Biarritz, Nicolas Falez
The Iranian crisis first, while Emmanuel Macron receives this Friday morning the head of Iranian diplomacy Mohammad Javad Zarif, the French president wants to prevent Teheran come out in turn of the nuclear agreement that is falling apart since the American withdrawal .
This meeting at a few hours of the G7 should not be the taste of Donald Trump. Washington is exerting maximum pressure on Iran, with economic sanctions. The Biarritz Summit - like other multilateral fora - should above all offer the spectacle of disagreement on this issue.
The situation in Syria and particularly Idleb will not be passed over in the G7, promised Emmanuel Macron this week, but this discussion will take place without a key player: Russia, which was a member of the late G8, before being excluded.
Among the other current crises, the protest in Hong Kong and also the situation in Kashmir, especially as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the leaders of non-G7 countries that France has invited to Biarritz.