G20 underscores emerging economies' growing clout

Sun Mar 15, 2009 2:55pm EDT
By Carolyn Cohn and Sebastian Tong - Analysis
LONDON (Reuters) - Emerging economies gained a promise of more money for the banks that lend to them and a greater say in those banks from G20 finance ministers this weekend, an answer to complaints that the emerging world has little influence in global policy-making.
The 10 emerging economies among the Group of 20 -- Brazil, Russia, India, China, Mexico, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Argentina and Turkey -- have suffered from the global downturn, but their growing economic strength in the past few years has given them more clout.
"The resolution to today's global problems is only possible with the participation of emerging countries ... There is a natural evolution of the decision-making process," Brazilian central bank governor Henrique Meirelles told Reuters.
The four largest emerging economies have become central to the growth of the world economy.
At the meeting in southeast England ahead of the leaders' summit in London next month, they spoke in a single and noticeably louder voice.
Brazil, India, Russia and China, collectively known as the BRIC countries, issued a joint communique calling for more lending to emerging economies hit by the collapse of private capital and for urgent reforms to improve their representation in the International Monetary Fund.