India FM to meet G20, BRICS ministers
July 15, 2013, 5:49 am

The Indian finance minister (left) seen here with his South African counterpart Pravin Gordhan, will meet BRICS finance ministry officials in Moscow [AP]

BRICS finance ministers will meet on the sidelines in Moscow to discuss preventive measures to counter a resurgent dollar.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff had announced plans to coordinate a BRICS response to a stronger dollar impact on emerging economies.

“The BRICS will decide on coordinated action related to the global appreciation of the US dollar at a meeting in July in Russia,” Thomas Traumann, spokesman for the Brazilian government said in June.

In a phone conversation with President Rousseff earlier last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping noted that some “new and complex elements” have occurred in the international financial markets and that the BRICS nations should boost cooperation in the financial field.

The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will be hosted by Moscow on July 19.

Chidambaram will be accompanied by Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao.

The ministerial meeting will focus on steps to deal with global economic woes and persistent slowdown. Corporate tax evasion is also expected to be high on the agenda.

The Russian G20 Sherpa and head of the Russian Presidential Experts’ Directorate, Ksenia Yudaeva said in June that the G20 would discuss two initiatives in the tax sphere – an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) proposal for an automatic information exchange between fiscal authorities and a policy report from the outcome of the ministerial meet.

The finance ministers will discuss the report of the G20 Framework Working Group which analyses new structural reforms’ commitments, and outline of further action plan.

The outcome of the meeting will be deliberated upon by the G20 ministers.

The Framework Working Group is co-chaired by Canada and India.

Russia, which holds the presidency of the G20 for this year, has raised concerns over the lack of clarity over the monetary stimulus policy of the US which has sent the currencies of major emerging economies into a steep fall.

The Indian rupee has reached lifetime lows against the dollar, breaching the 60 mark.

“If the policy of quantitative easing in the United States is terminated, this can lead to excessive nervousness on the markets, especially in emerging markets; it can lead to an outflow of capital from these markets,” Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told Reuters last week.

The G20 Summit is to be held in St Petersberg on September 5-6.

Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak has said the G20 Summit in St Petersburg this September will see the BRICS leaders meeting and they will be updated on the status of the BRICS Bank as well.

With inputs from Agencies