Global finance leaders hopeful for modest rebound in 2020

WASHINGTON – Global finance leaders agree that growth has slowed but they remain hopeful for a modest rebound next year as long as trade and geopolitical tensions do not worsen.

That was the assessment Friday from finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of 20 major industrial countries.

Those officials met ahead of discussions Saturday with the policy-setting panels of the 189-nation International Monetary Fund and the its sister lending organization, the World Bank.

The leaders of those two organizations appealed to their member countries on Friday to resolve the widening disagreements on trade, climate change and other issues, warning that the continued diversions threatened to worsen the current global slowdown.