G20 leaders urge US to agree to IMF reforms

The leaders of the G20 have urged the United Sates to quickly ratify reforms of the International Monetary Fund to boost the standing of developing and emerging economies in the global financial system.

The leaders voiced their urgency in a communique at the end of their two-day summit in Antalya, Turkey, on Monday.

In 2010, the IMF had decided to double its funding and reform the institution by giving more voting power to emerging economies like China and India. The reforms were expected to be completed by the end of 2012 but have been delayed mainly due to the reluctance of the United States to accept them..

The administration of US President Barack Obama has been unable to get the Congress to approve the reforms, which the US can block because it holds a controlling share of IMF votes among the 24-member IMF board.

"We remain deeply disappointed with the continued delay in implementing the IMF quota and governance reforms agreed in 2010," the communique said.“The 2010 reforms remain our highest priority for the IMF, and we urge the United States to ratify these reforms as soon as possible.”

The leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to maintain a strongly funded and adequately resourced IMF.

They also agreed that the heads and senior leadership of all international financial institutions should be appointed through an open, transparent and merit-based process, and reiterated the importance of enhancing staff diversity in these organizations.

"We reaffirm that the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket composition should continue to reflect the role of currencies in the global trading and financial system and look forward to the completion of the review of the method of valuation of the SDR," the leaders said in the communique.

The IMF announced on Nov 13 that its executive board will decide whether the Chinese renminbi will be part of the SDR currency basket at the end of this month. The US dollar, British pound, the euro and Japanese yen are in the basket.