What is the G20?

This article was first published in 2016 and has been updated in November 2022.

This year’s Group of 20 (G20) summit is being chaired by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who has hailed the two-day gathering as an opportunity “to build a healthier, more just, and a more sustainable order” in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The G20 is a forum of the twenty largest economies in the world that meets regularly to discuss the most pressing issues facing the global economy.

Together, the G20 accounts for more than 80% of world GDP, 75% of global trade and 60% of the population of the planet. The current members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States, plus the European Union.

The G20 started in 1999, following the Asian financial crisis, as a forum for finance ministers and central bank governors from the major developed and emerging economies to discuss global financial issues.

Amid the global financial crisis in 2008, it grew into the leaders’ summit, a place where presidents and prime ministers could get together for two days to try to solve the world’s economic problems.

Successive meetings of G20 leaders were held in Washington DC in 2008, London in early 2009 and Pittsburgh in late 2009, and have since become annual fixtures.

In the run-up to summits, senior officials known as "sherpas" thrash out the issues for discussion, with the aim of getting G20 members to reach agreement at the summit. Like sherpas in the Himalayas, they help guide their leaders through often difficult terrain, and do the diplomatic legwork.

There are also meetings of finance ministers and central bank governors, trade representatives and anti-corruption working groups.

The G20 presidency rotates between members and is picked from different regions each year. In 2015, the G20 host was Turkey. This year it is China’s turn, with the theme: “Toward an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world economy.”

Spain is a "permanent invitee", and the G20 host also invites a handful of guest countries as a way of reaching out to non-members. However, to invite more nations to join the G20 would make decision-making too cumbersome, the thinking goes.

The heads of a number of international organizations also participate, including the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation.

While the G7 is made up of rich countries, the G20 manages to get leaders from both developed and emerging economies around the table, representing a far broader range of views.

It has been credited with reaching important agreements such as the trillion-dollar pledge in 2009 to help struggling economies during the global financial crisis.

Sometimes, however, it has proved hard for such a diverse group of countries to reach consensus. The hope that the G20 agenda would broaden beyond the global economy to include discussion of political issues, such as security and climate change, has not really materialized.