Russia urges G20 to tell market about its debt policy guidance

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 17, 2013) Russia urges the G20 nations to inform the markets about their debt policy guidance.

“We think it would be advisable to put medium-term debt policy guidelines for countries with a lot of debt on the agenda for the G20 meeting [of finance ministers, which takes place in Moscow at the end of the week],” Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

“High volumes of debt create uncertainty for investors. We need to give investors an understanding of countries’ intentions, how they will pursue their debt policy,” Siluanov said.

“Questions about how G20 countries will move from the point of view of cleaning up their debt obligations is the key issue that is affecting the investment climate in the world in general,” he said.

Other major topics for discussion at the G20 meeting include exchanging information, and joint efforts to analyze the tax base. “Of course this will be discussed by the finance ministers and by the [G20] leaders [t their summit in September],” he said.

Global financial architecture issues,” which unfortunately have still not been resolved,” will be another topic. “There’s still no decision by Congress to ratify the 14th [IMF] quota review, and the process has stalled to some extent. We need to move further,” Siluanov said.

Siluanov told reporters on the sidelines of an international conference on long-term investments as the guarantee of sustainable growth in Moscow that progress might be made on the IMF quotes front in the autumn.

“Congress might debate [the ratification] again in the autumn. We have hope, but it is hard to predict anything,” he said.

The G20 finance ministers and central bankers will in Moscow on July 19-20 and again in October, Siluanov said. “If Congress manages to discuss the issue then we’ll make progress,” he said.

“Many countries, in particular with emerging markets, want the quotas to be reviewed as quickly as possible and are responding seriously to the fact that the issue is not moving forward. They are asking when we can review the proportion of quotas,” Siluanov said, adding that they would be audible at the July meeting. “This isn’t very pleasant for us all, but that’s how it is,” he said.