Janet Yellen says Russians have ‘no place’ at G-20 session in Bali

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Russian government officials had “no place” at the upcoming meetings for finance chiefs from the world’s leading economies in Bali, Indonesia.

“Russia’s actions are not the actions of a government that upholds international norms and laws,” Yellen told reporters when discussing Russia’s war in Ukraine. “Representatives of the Putin regime have no place at this forum.”

Yellen said she hopes India and China will see the benefits of a proposal to cap the price paid for Russia’s oil exports, adding that the lack of a price-cap plan would be worse for Russia. She said a decision on an oil price-cap level hadn’t yet been made.

Energy-related price growth was responsible for almost half of the US inflation surge, Yellen said. Consumer inflation is “unacceptably high” and the Biden administration supports the Federal Reserve’s efforts to curb it, she told reporters.

Yellen argued that officials from the Group of 20 should put more pressure on China over debt issues, including working to restructure debt for lower-income countries such as Sri Lanka.

Yellen spoke on the eve of two days of meetings on the Indonesian resort island. An impasse on how to characterize the economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is hanging over prospects for agreement at the G-20 meetings.

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