By FX Empire.com
The G20 Summit Ends
You can read the comments made by attendees at the G20 Summit in Mexico that was held over the past weekend. There seems to be a distinct difference of fundamental concerns between the Eurozone nations, the EU and the non Eurozone nations. You decide for yourself
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble made no bones of Berlin’s opposition to pouring more cash into the pot, saying it “didn’t make any economic sense”.
Nevertheless, he also noted that a decision in March would be “timely” given the IMF discussion on more resources a month later.
Britain’s Finance Minister George Osborne told Sky News: “We are prepared to consider IMF resources but only once we see the color of the eurozone money, and we have not seen the color of the eurozone money.”
“We welcome the important progress made by Europe in recent months to strengthen their fiscal positions, adopt measures to reduce financial stress … and to put Greece on a sustainable path,” the statement said.
Nevertheless, while the crisis has abated in recent weeks, the G20 warned that “growth expectations for 2012 are moderate and downside risks continue to be high”, adding they were “alert” to the risks of higher oil prices.
“It’s not about answering the question, ‘Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?’ … it’s about moving forward together on both issues” of the eurozone firewall and IMF funds, said French Finance Minister Francois Baroin.
“The issue of amounts was not discussed today, but it will be an essential theme and will be worked on from now until the spring meetings of April,” Agustin Carstens of Mexico told reporters.
Eurozone countries have already promised EUR150 billion ($A189 billion) to the IMF in the hope of reassuring the markets they have the resources to tackle a re-emergence of the crisis.
But countries outside the zone, including the United States, Britain, Japan and China insisted at the latest G20 meeting that the eurozone first puts its hand in its pocket.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde has said the fund needs an additional $US500 billion ($A469 billion), although she said she was “not obsessed” by this figure.
“We have to be flexible,” she told reporters.
“Progress on this strategy will be reviewed at the next ministerial meeting in April,” the G20 statement said
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner saying it was essential to prevent more fallout worldwide.
“This is going to be a very difficult process of many, many years in Europe,” he warned after the meeting.
A statement released on Sunday after a meeting of the group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers in Mexico City says: “Euro area countries will reassess the strength of their support facilities in March.
“They all expect that the euro area will strengthen, consolidate, and reinforce its firewall to make sure that it is both adequate and credible before they look at increasing the firepower of the fund (IMF).”
“This will provide an essential input in our ongoing consideration to mobilize resources to the IMF.”
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner joined in the calls for the EU to do more.
“There is broad agreement that the IMF cannot substitute for the absence of a stronger European firewall and that the IMF cannot move forward without more clarity on Europe’s own plans,” he said, while noting the US would not be making any increased contribution.
But Olli Rehn, the European Commission vice president for economic and monetary affairs, said he expected euro-leaders to sign on.
“I trust (they will) decide to reinforce this combined lending facility in order to better contain market turbulence.
Mr Rehn argued that it is “better to take a preventive approach”.
“Prevention is always better than correction, and indeed as we have a large enough financial firewall, we are much more convincingly able to contain the market turbulence that may still return even if we have experienced a certain period of stabilization recently,” Mr Rehn said.
What do you make of all this, your comments will be appreciated
Originally posted here
