By Anna Yukhananov and Lidia Kelly
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW, March 6 (Reuters) – Russian officials are
pushing for the International Monetary Fund to move ahead with
planned reforms without the United States, which could mean the
loss of the U.S. veto over major decisions at the global lender,
sources said.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov brought up the idea
at a meeting of top finance officials from the Group of 20
nations in Sydney late last month, two G20 sources told Reuters
this week.
The failure of the U.S. Congress to approve IMF funding has
held up reforms agreed in 2010 that would double the Fund’s
resources and give more say to emerging markets like China.
The United States is the only country that holds a
controlling share of IMF votes, meaning its approval is
necessary for any major decision to go forward.
Moving ahead on reforms without Washington would likely
require complicated changes to the IMF’s rules. But the
discussions show the level of frustration within the G20 with
the Obama administration’s inability to win the needed
congressional support.
A third source would not confirm it was Russia that brought
up the issue, but said the G20 generally agreed to give the
United States until the April meetings of the IMF and World Bank
before taking more aggressive measures, a point confirmed by one
of the other sources. All three sources spoke on condition of
anonymity.
“It was agreed that in the absence of progress by the United
States on the 2010 package by the April meeting of the IMF and
G20, that there will be formulated a list of ‘bad options,’
which will allow to move forward in this matter, excluding the
opinions of the United States,” the third source said.
For a year, the Obama administration has been trying to get
Congress to approve a shift of some $63 billion from an IMF
crisis fund to its general accounts in order to make good on its
2010 commitment.
The U.S. Treasury is now seeking to attach the funding to a
financial aid package for Ukraine that is under consideration in
Congress. It argues the reforms would allow crisis-hit countries
like Ukraine to borrow more money from the IMF.
“It is imperative that we secure passage of IMF legislation
now so we can show support for the IMF in this critical moment
and preserve our leading influential voice in the institution,”
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told lawmakers on Thursday during a
hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Ukraine bill may be the administration’s best chance of
passing the IMF funding shift this year, analysts say.
But a senior House Republican aide said on Wednesday that
the House assistance package for Ukraine would not include IMF
funding. The Senate said it was still deciding whether to
include the IMF in its version of the bill.
(Reporting by Anna Yukhananov in Washington and Lidia Kelly in
Moscow, additional reporting by Jason Lange in Washington)
