• Due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the entire global economy is taking a hit.

    Sanctions applied by Western countries and inflation are the causes.

  • The G7 finance ministers aim to keep Ukraine's economy afloat, and are exploring various financing options.

  • If making Russia pay is a hypothesis, it is necessary to take precautions in terms of legality according to the ministers.

Keep Ukraine's finances afloat.

This is the objective of the meeting, in Germany, of the big money-makers of the G7.

They will review the cascading repercussions on the world economy of the war launched by Moscow.

With inflation linked in particular to soaring energy prices, the threat of a food crisis and the specter of over-indebtedness in many developing countries, the agenda of the finance ministers of the seven industrial powers (United States, Japan, Canada, France, Italy, UK, Germany) is loaded.

The first urgency of this meeting, until Friday, is to complete a new round of funding to cover the Ukrainian budget for the current quarter.

Help needed “now”

"I am quite optimistic that we will be able, together with the G7, to raise the funds that will allow Ukraine to defend itself over the next few months", declared at the opening of the discussions Christian Lindner, the German Finance Minister, whose country is chairing the G7 this year.

He mentioned needs in excess of ten billion euros.

To run the country, kyiv asks for 5 billion dollars a month.

Find our file on Ukraine

Of the colossal $40 billion extension for Ukraine put on track last week by US President Joe Biden, some $7.5 billion is expected to top the Ukrainian budget, according to G7 ministerial sources.

“I will ask my counterparts to join us in increasing their financial support for Ukraine.

Ukraine (…) needs our help and they need it now,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on her arrival in Königswinter, a leafy suburb of Bonn (west) where the meeting is being held.

On Wednesday, the European Commission for its part proposed “new macro-financial assistance” to Ukraine for this year in an amount “of up to 9 billion euros”.

Make Russia pay?

The proportion of loans and direct aid in this new support package will be on the menu of the G7 discussions.

It is a question of ensuring the solvency of Ukraine "for the next few days, the next few weeks", had insisted Christian Lindner, on the eve of the main meetings.

Although the war continues on Ukrainian territory, reflections are already under way on aid for the reconstruction of the country.

And these discussions “have only just begun”, underlined Ms. Yellen in Königswinter, but avenues of financing are mentioned, such as that of using Russian assets frozen under Western sanctions.

If Germany considers this hypothesis “politically conceivable”, it emphasizes, like France, that the legal obstacles are numerous.

“We have to look carefully at the constraints that are imposed on us,” says the French Ministry of Finance.

“We must respect the rule of law, even if we are dealing with Russian oligarchs,” Mr. Lindner recently observed.

The war launched by Russia should cause a massive contraction of the Ukrainian economy, estimated at 30% by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and even 45% by the World Bank.

Transparency request to China

The entire world economy is affected by this offensive and the sanctions against Moscow.

Against a backdrop of worsening inflation and the threat of a food crisis in some countries, the IMF has reduced its forecast for global growth to 3.6% this year, against 4.4% projected in January.

“We are witnessing serious economic consequences, especially for low-income countries, due to rising interest rates and rising world prices for agricultural products,” the German finance minister noted.

"We will have to work together on how we can stabilize the global economy," he urged.

While 60% of low-income countries are in over-indebtedness or risk being so soon, Christian Lindner calls on China, "one of the world's main creditors", to be "more transparent" about its lending practices to poor countries .


“Beijing has always been very reluctant in this regard.

This is no longer justifiable: we need to know quickly who is in debt and how”, in order to better coordinate aid to these countries.

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  • Economy

  • War in Ukraine

  • Inflation

  • G7

  • Russia