Friday, February 24, 2012

No G20 deal on IMF cash this weekend, pressure on Europe

By Luis Rojas and Alonso Soto

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The world's leading economic powers will not reach a deal this weekend to provide the IMF with more money to help ease the euro zone debt crisis because European leaders first need to do more themselves, officials said on Friday

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 top economies are gathering in Mexico City with Europe hoping that China, Japan and others will soon commit to giving the International Monetary Fund more money so it can help euro zone countries which suffer a cash crunch.

But many G20 countries are insisting that Europe needs to take the first step by bolstering its own bailout funds to quell any future deepening of the debt crisis.

Mexican Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade, who is hosting the meeting, said it was "still early in the process" to start discussing specific amounts and ways that G20 nations could commit more money for the IMF.

The world's rich countries have used the G20 to coordinate their response to the financial crisis that erupted in 2008 after the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble and then spread to Europe where many countries are saddled with heavy debts.

As the crisis has dragged on, however, divisions over how to tackle it have deepened. The IMF wants to raise as much as $600 billion in extra resources to help deal with fallout from the euro zone debt crisis, but the plan faces resistance from countries including the United States and Canada.

The United States has told Europe to do more on its own and also made clear it will not provide more cash to help the IMF handle the crisis. That has put the onus on Europe's richest countries plus China, Japan and others to raise the funds.

Even if it wanted to, President Barack Obama's administration would have little or no chance of getting Congress' approval in an election year to send more cash to help out Europe.

EU leaders will meet next week to discuss boosting their own bailout funds. Even G20 countries that are willing to help are unlikely to promise more money until Europe proves it is acting to help itself.

"In order to break the adverse feedback loop, it's crucial for European authorities to implement urgent policy actions, including the consolidation of fiscal accounts," Mexico's central bank governor Agustin Carstens said.

"The problems many countries are facing today have a solution if they act decisively and in time. If this is done sooner rather than later we will see a promising future for the global economy."

'OPPORTUNITY'

Mark McCormick, a currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York, said most governments around the world are determined to force Europe to solve its own problems, including further progress on a common approach to running their budgets.

"Coordination through G20 can help ring-fence some of the contagion in the global financial system but the resolution of this is going to take political acquiescence on the part of euro zone policymakers to forge a stronger union by themselves," he said. "Money from G20 via the IMF buys them a bit more time."

Still, some member countries will push the G20 this weekend to at least outline the mechanisms it would use to help.

"Since we might not be able to finalize any numbers, money pledges by individual countries, we should not waste the opportunity to move forward," said Paulo Nogueira Batista, Brazil's top representative at the IMF.

The next opportunities for the G20 to agree on more funds for the IMF are most likely to be in April, on the sidelines of the twice-yearly Fund meetings, or in June, when G20 leaders are due to meet in Mexico.

While policy makers squabbled over whether and how to boost the IMF's firepower, a group of international bankers called on the G20 to work harder to boost growth, warning that the euro zone crisis threatens to hit the global economy.

Governments should also take a slower approach on tough new financial rules, the Institute of International Finance said on the eve of the G20 meeting here.

The IIF welcomed the progress Europe has made in addressing its sovereign debt problems through an emergency bailout fund, central bank liquidity, and toughened fiscal rules. But it cautioned that budget cutbacks in weaker countries like Greece and Spain could severely damage long-term growth prospects.

"While necessary, fiscal austerity will in the short term weigh on already sub-par growth," it said. "Mitigating the impact of fiscal austerity is key."

(Additional reporting by Stella Dawson and G20 reporting team; editing by Kieran Murray and William Schomberg)

News

Friday, February 24, 2012

No G20 deal on IMF cash this weekend, pressure on Europe

By Luis Rojas and Alonso Soto