ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is taking President Donald Trump’s emphasis on economic growth to the international stage as the United States hosts finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s largest economies for G20 talks in North Carolina.

Bessent is hosting the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Asheville on Monday and Tuesday, with the United States placing stronger economic growth at the center of its agenda for the Finance Track.

Before the meetings, Bessent directly connected the international agenda with the Trump administration’s domestic economic policies.

“Just as President Trump is reviving American economic growth and making it the centerpiece of this Administration’s agenda, we are taking the same approach and prioritizing growth as the host of this year’s G20 Finance Track,” Bessent said Sunday.

Bessent said the United States intends to bring government policymakers and private-sector leaders together to make the case that stronger economic expansion can be achieved and is increasingly important to the world economy.

“We look forward to convening policymakers and private sector leaders from around the globe to emphasize that stronger growth is not only possible, but necessary,” Bessent said.

Trump Administration Puts Growth First

The message reflects one of the central themes of Trump’s economic agenda: government policy should encourage investment, domestic production, energy development and private-sector expansion rather than accepting prolonged periods of weak economic growth as inevitable.

Bessent’s decision to emphasize growth at the G20 also gives the administration an opportunity to promote that philosophy internationally.

The G20 discussions are taking place at a difficult moment for the global economy. Finance ministers are confronting sovereign-debt problems, international trade disputes, economic imbalances and uncertainty associated with the Iran conflict and disruptions affecting energy markets.

Those challenges make the question of economic growth particularly significant.

Faster sustainable growth can increase employment and incomes while expanding the economic base from which governments collect revenue. It can also make heavy public-debt burdens easier to manage relative to the size of national economies.

Growth, however, cannot simply be declared. Lasting economic expansion ultimately depends on productivity, investment, labor-force participation, technological development, available capital and policies that allow businesses to expand.

That makes the G20 discussion about more than producing a favorable economic communiqué. The larger question is whether participating countries can pursue policies capable of increasing their productive capacity.

America Takes Its Economic Philosophy to the G20

The United States’ G20 presidency provides the Trump administration with an international platform to argue that countries should pursue stronger economic expansion instead of treating slow growth as the unavoidable condition of mature economies.

Bessent’s message is particularly noteworthy because the G20 Finance Track brings together the officials responsible for many of the world’s most consequential fiscal, monetary and financial policies.

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh traveled to Asheville with Bessent ahead of the meetings. Finance ministers, central-bank governors and representatives from international institutions are participating in the discussions.

India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is among the senior international officials attending. Before reaching Asheville, Sitharaman held discussions with investors and corporate executives focused on manufacturing, investment, technology and innovation.

The presence of government officials alongside private-sector leaders reflects an important part of Bessent’s argument: governments can establish tax, regulatory, trade and fiscal policies, but businesses and investors ultimately make many of the decisions that produce factories, technology, employment and increased economic output.

Growth Could Become an Answer to the Global Debt Problem

The emphasis on growth is also occurring while many governments are struggling with large debt burdens.

Sovereign debt is expected to be an important subject during the Asheville discussions, along with trade, global imbalances and international financial institutions.

That makes Bessent’s growth argument particularly relevant.

Governments generally have several ways of dealing with high debt burdens: reducing spending, increasing revenue, tolerating inflation, restructuring debt in extreme circumstances or expanding their economies sufficiently that existing debt becomes smaller relative to national output.

Strong economic growth does not eliminate government debt, but it can make that debt considerably easier to manage.

For the United States, that distinction is becoming increasingly important as Washington confronts large federal borrowing requirements and elevated interest costs.

A Test for the Trump Economic Agenda

Bessent’s message in Asheville consequently amounts to more than a defense of current U.S. economic policy.

The administration is asking other major economies to consider a broader proposition: the world’s economic problems cannot be addressed solely by redistributing existing wealth or managing economic stagnation. Countries must also create conditions that produce more investment, productivity and economic output.

Whether the G20 participants ultimately embrace that approach will depend on negotiations among countries with widely different economic systems and political priorities.

The United States, however, has made its position clear.

Under Trump and Bessent, Washington intends to make economic growth—not acceptance of economic stagnation—the centerpiece of its message to the world’s leading economies.

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By B. Wilder, Staff Reporter contributed to this report.

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