Europese ministers van Financiën zullen tijdens G20 pleiten voor hervorming IMF(en)
An agreement to increase funding for the International Monetary Fund and to speed up changes to member state representation in the multilateral lender were the few concrete decisions to come out of Saturday's (14 March) meeting of G20 i finance ministers and bank governors in London.
"We agreed on the urgent need to increase IMF resources very substantially," the ministers' communiqué released after the meeting said. However, a final decision on the actual figure was deferred to the G20 leaders' meeting on 2 April, possibly in a bid to secure at least one big announcement for that date.
IMF president Dominique Strauss-Kahn has called in recent weeks for a doubling of the bank's funds from its current level of $250 billion (€193bn), whereas last week the United States administration surprised the global community by saying they believed IMF funds should be tripled.
Diverging opinions on the need for further fiscal stimulus spending were evident in the group's statement that said little on the subject, instead reaffirming ministers' rejection of protectionism and willingness to maintain open trade and investment.
The meeting emphasised the need to restore the financial sector to normal operation and unblock credit channels to businesses currently being starved of essential capital.
As part of this drive, ministers agreed a common framework on dealing with impaired assets, essentially a government commitment to act transparently when they move to deal with the hugely devalued assets held by national banks.
More telling was the agreement to bring forward the next review of IMF quotas from 2013 to 2011 under which some developing countries, such as China, with large surpluses are likely to be asked to increase donations to the multilateral lender but with the quid pro quo of increased voting authority.
"Emerging and developing economies, including the poorest, should have greater voice and representation," the statement says.
Pre-empting this decision, Brazil, Russia, India and China put out a separate communiqué before the meeting saying the recent system of ad hoc donations should give way to a permanent increase in member state quotas and the implicit adjustment in voting rights.
Japan recently signed a deal to provide the IMF with a loan of $100 billion (€77bn).
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