By David Lawder
ASHEVILLE, North Carolina, Aug 31 (Reuters) - U.S. officials urged Group of 20 country finance leaders on Monday to push harder for economic growth as the best way to counter concerns over rising global debt levels.
The two-day meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, comes as the global economy is being buffeted by an energy shock triggered by the Iran war, faces rising tensions over China's huge goods trade surplus and is braced for how an investment surge in AI will ultimately play out.
Global debt levels earlier this year hit a record of nearly $353 trillion, leading to concerns about financial stability and prompting some investors to reappraise even traditionally safe havens such as U.S. Treasuries.
"The world is awash in debt post-GFC, post-COVID, and the only way for us to get out of this is to grow our way out of this," U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the start of the meeting, referring to the 2007 to 2009 global financial crisis.
"I'm confident that a lot of the leaders are very receptive to this," he added.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, attending his first international economic policy meeting since taking office in May, said he was looking forward to learning more about growth prospects among member economies.
"If I were to try to characterize this moment, it would be one of a global investment surge," he said, adding that it had reversed the "global savings glut", which in the past had kept capital idle due to a shortage of investment opportunities.
Finance ministers and central bankers were due on Monday to attend a session with business leaders, reflecting the Trump administration's view that growth was best served by freeing up the private sector by deregulation and producing more energy.
Bessent told that session that global growth had underperformed its potential for too long and that causes can no longer include "policy failures of our own making."
He said that the U.S. Treasury had identified several impediments to growth that G20 countries needed to work on, including "excessive regulatory and administrative burdens, poorly designed financial incentives and tax systems, insufficient public and private investment, internal market fragmentation, and gaps in workforce skills and mobility".
NO DEBT MARKET 'TURMOIL'
Bessent also highlighted strong U.S. growth, which has benefited from investments in AI infrastructure that have also helped to push up U.S. Treasury debt yields by soaking up savings that had previously held U.S. borrowing costs down by flowing into Treasuries.