The Finance Ministers of BRICS countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa on Thursday said they are open to the idea of providing support through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or other financial institutions to address global economic challenges.
"The BRICS are open to consider, if necessary, providing support through the IMF or other international financial institutions in order to address the present challenges to global financial stability, depending on individual country circumstances," said a joint communiqu issued by the BRICS finance ministers after their meeting.
"We underscored the continuing need to maintain international policy coordination and coordination through the G-20," said the communiqu issued on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
"We also expressed our concern over the slow pace of quota and governance reforms, including in the area of surveillance in the IMF, and for the need for multilateral development banks to mobilise more resources for low income and developing countries," Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at a press conference addressed by the BRICS finance ministers.
Responding to questions, Mukherjee said the issue was raised and the consensus was that there should be serious efforts made by Europeans and others of the international community.
"BRIC will be part of that consensus building and BRICS will contribute its own might and its own contribution to resolve the crisis along with G-20
"We discussed in terms of preparation, in terms of mutual work on those threats which we are facing. We are trying to escape the use of words like aid assistance, so on and so forth. We will work on the issue together with the European Union and between ourselves," the Russian Deputy Finance Minister, Segey Storchak, said.
"We must also move ahead with the comprehensive review of the quota formula by January, 2013, and the completion of the next review of quotas by January, 2014. This is needed to increase the legitimacy and effectiveness of the fund," the communiqu said.
"We reiterate our support for measures to protect the voice and representation of the IMF's poorest members. We call on the IMF to make its surveillance framework more integrated and even-handed," it said.
While BRICS countries recovered quickly from the 2008-09 global financial crisis, some of them are now grappling with inflationary pressures and the growth prospects of all the countries have been dampened by global market instability, the communiqu said.
"In advanced countries, the build-up of sovereign debt and concerns regarding the medium to long-term plans of fiscal adjustment are creating an uncertain environment for global growth.
"Also, excessive liquidity from aggressive policy actions taken by central banks to stabilise their domestic economies has been spilling over into emerging market economies, fostering excessive volatility in capital flows and commodity prices," it said.
