Don’t be snooty about global cooperation – the G7 summit could prove vital for post-Covid recovery

We are not out of the woods yet, and anything that this meeting of international leaders can do to help us will be massively welcome, writes Hamish McRae

Finance ministers from the G7 nations meeting last weekend at Lancaster House in London, ahead of the G7 leaders’ summit (AP)

G7 summits are about geopolitics, not economics or finance. That is the concern of the finance ministers and central bankers because the heads of government have a lot of other things on their plate. But the meeting this week will matter in economic terms for two reasons.

First, it is the first overseas visit by Joe Biden, and will show that the US is back in the game of trying to sustain an open world economy, in sharp contrast to the previous administration.

Second, thanks to the strong (maybe over-strong) economic boom in America, the US will be pretty much back to its pre-pandemic levels in the next month or so, whereas, according to the OECD, the UK and Europe have a bit of a way to go. So there is practical leadership, not just political leadership.