G-20 Agree More Government Action Needed for World Recovery

Group of 20 officials meeting in Mexico City agreed that the latest monetary easing by developed nations will buy time for the global economic recovery and that governments must do more to boost growth, Mexican central bank Deputy Governor Manuel Ramos Francia said.

Ramos Francia spoke at a news conference following the end of a two-day meeting of deputy finance ministers and central bank officials from G-20 nations in Mexico City. Mexico is presiding over the group this year.

The meetings took place after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Sept. 6 that the bank was ready to buy unlimited quantities of short-dated government bonds of nations signed up for rescues.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Sept. 13 said that it would make additional purchases of debt in a third round of so-called quantitative easing, while the Bank of Japan unexpectedly increased its asset-purchase fund to 55 trillion yen ($707 billion) at its meeting last week.

Commodity Prices

The G-20 nations called for better transparency in commodities markets and for measures to boost production, transportation and trade of raw materials to reduce price volatilitiy, said Mexico’s deputy finance minister, Gerardo Rodriguez, who co-chaired the Sept. 23 and 24 meetings.

Rodriguez said the deputies discussed boosting emerging markets’ International Monetary Fund quotas, which determine access to financing, financial obligation and voting rights. A concrete decision will probably come by the end of the year or the start of 2013, he said.

The nations agreed that emerging markets should “gradually” increase their presence in the IMF based on measurements including economic output, Rodriguez said.