Brics nations to boost contributions to IMF
Heads of the BRICS countries (L to R) President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa pose prior to the BRICS summit in New Delhi on March 29, 2012.
The so-called Brics economies – comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are to increase their respective contributions to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but have warned that they expect a greater say at the Washington-based lender, which has long been dominated by the US and Europe.
The five countries are among the fastest growing economies on the planet. China, the second-biggest economy in the world, has said it will contribute $43 billion to the fund, while both India and Russia have pledged to boost their contributions by $10 billion each, the BBC reported.
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In a statement issued on the margins of the ongoing G20 summit in Mexico, the Brics said they expected the IMF to draw upon their contributions only after existing funds had been “substantially utilized,” adding that “these new contributions are being made in anticipation that all the reforms agreed upon in 2010 will be fully implemented in a timely manner, including a comprehensive reform of voting power and reform of quota shares,” according to Reuters.
The additional pledges have swelled the IMF’s coffers to $456 billion, helping the lender to surpass a $430 billion funding target announced in April in order to stave off a future financial crisis and rescue debt-ridden, beleaguered euro zone economies, InvestmentWeek reported.
G20 leaders have convened for a two-day summit at Mexico’s Los Cabos beach resort, with the financial storm that is sweeping the 17-nation euro area dominating discussions, according to Bloomberg.