First working session of G7 finance summit begins

Representatives of G7 nations are holding their first working session in Italy on Friday, focused on economic incentives for growth and financial regulation.

The agenda of the summit, that is being attended by finance ministers and banking representatives of the world's seven most industrialised nations, began at 8.40 a.m. in the city of Bari, with a symposium with reputed economists, Efe news reported.

The meeting will last four hours and post-lunch, at 1.30 p.m., the participants will hold the first of the four working sessions scheduled until Saturday.

The discussions will be private and are expected to last for four hours.

In the evening, the participants will visit Matera, around 65 km from Bari and famous for its Sassi settlements that, along with its rupestrian churches, were declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1993.

Among those attending the summit in Bari are US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Italy's Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, Germany's Wolfgang Schauble, France's Michel Sapin, the UK's Philip Hammond, Canada's William Morneau and Japan's Taro Aso.

--IANS

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