G-20 finance leaders tackle dire fallout from war in Ukraine

BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has urged leaders of major economies to work more closely in countering the impact from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Yellen and other top financial officials from the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations are gathering on the Indonesian island of Bali for meetings that begin Friday. Yellen has been seeking support for a price cap on Russian oil that might help bring energy costs under control and alleviate the decades-high inflation seen in many countries.

Oil prices have soared, partly due to the war in Ukraine, pushing up energy costs that accounted for about half the increase in the 9.1% annual jump in U.S. consumer prices in June, Yellen noted.

It would be the latest effort to starve Russia's military of revenue on top of thousands of sanctions already imposed to punish Moscow for its invasion.

“A price cap on Russian oil is one of our most powerful tools to address the pain Americans and families across the world are feeling at the gas pump and the grocery store right now, a limit on the price of Russian oil,” Yellen said at news briefing in Bali also shown online.

Yellen said no price had yet been determined for such a cap, but the level would have to be one “that clearly gives Russia an incentive to continue to produce, that would make production profitable for Russia.”

She said she was “hopeful" that countries such as China and India that recently boosted imports of Russian crude oil, sold at steep discounts, would see it as being in their own self-interest to observe the price cap.

Without a price cap, a European Union and probably a U.S. ban on providing insurance and other financial services would take effect. “So, we’re proposing an exception that would allow Russia to export as long as the...