By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington: No solution has yet been found on how to give a greater say to emerging markets in the global economic governance structure to reflect their growing importance, according to Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The issue of giving more voice to and increasing the voting power of emerging economies was discussed during the International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meetings here over the weekend, he told reporters here Sunday wrapping up his four-day visit.
“No solution has been found, but talks are going on,” said Mukherjee, who had made a forceful plea for giving more voice to emerging markets saying expansion of IMF’s role “is inextricably linked to reform of quotas.”
“It cannot be effective or credible without a shift in governance structure and voting power,” he told the steering committee of the 187 nation global financial institutions Saturday.
However, one point emerging from the discussions was that “with G-20 assuming more important role in the matters of money and finance as 85 percent of the world output from these countries, their should be certain linkages with the IMF and World Bank,” Mukherjee said Sunday.
It was suggested that nations which are members of the two organisations as also G-20 should also reflect their views about the current economic developments at the G-20 finance ministers conference before the November summit in Seoul in the third week of October.
On the ongoing “currency war”, over mounting trade deficits in countries like the US and Great Britain and surpluses in countries like China and Germany, Mukherjee favoured evolving a consensus though dialogue.
“We cannot have a clear cut formula,” he said noting Indian currency was not yet fully convertible, some were partly convertible, while others had fixed rates.
“So all these will have to be taken into account,” Mukherjee said suggesting it should not be at the top of the finance ministers agenda in Seoul as it cannot be sorted out in a day.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected]