ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the early economic summits, and determines why G7 summitry has proved so durable. There were two main reasons for launching the summits in the mid-1970s, both singled out in Piers Ludlow's chapter. The first reason was that the industrial economies were in crisis. The second reason was a decisive shift in the balance of economic power. An economic summit would enable them to combine their financial expertise with their authority as leaders. Improving macroeconomic performance was a major objective from the start, as the summits attempted policy coordination with growing ambition. After the first oil shock the summits had promoted coordinated stimulus of economic growth. The early summits gave backing to the GATT initiative as a means of resisting the protectionist pressures provoked by the oil shock. The summits of the 1990s focused on East-West economic issues. The G8 concentrated on Africa, where economic advance was linked to political issues like governance and security.
