The finance ministers and central bank governors of the seven most industrialised nations (G7) have come together in Dresden at the invitation of Federal Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann. From 27 to 29 May, they will hold discussions with leading figures from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the OECD, as well as with the President of the European Central Bank and senior representatives of the Eurogroup and the European Commission.

Sustainably higher growth

The meeting is taking place under Germany's G7 presidency, the primary aim of which is to play a role in making the global economy more dynamic. The focus is on a balanced set of measures to strengthen demand and on implementing necessary structural reforms, thus enabling sustainably higher growth to be achieved.

The second key topic of the financial summit is measures to make the financial system more stable. Central to this is the coordinated implementation of the reform agenda, which has been drafted during the consultations of the twenty most important industrial nations and emerging market economies (G20), in order to tackle the "too big to fail" problem by imposing stricter capital requirements on particularly systemically important financial institutions. Alongside these issues, the summit will also address how the preferential regulatory treatment afforded to sovereign bonds can be ended.

Other topics to be covered at the summit include stronger cooperation for fairer taxation and the question of how geopolitical risks can be managed.

High-level symposium

For the first time at a G7 summit, highly regarded economists have also been invited to the event in Dresden. They include, for example, the Nobel prize-winner Robert Shiller as well as Harvard economists Kenneth Rogoff and Larry Summers. The joint symposium of academics and policymakers during the G7 meeting will serve to take stock of the global economy seven years after the onset of the financial crisis and to facilitate the exchange of thoughts and opinions about actions required. It will also pave the way for the G7 summit at Schloss Elmau on 7 and 8 June this year.