Chidambaram to attend G20 Ministerial in Moscow

Finance Minister P Chidambaram will be leaving for Moscow later in the week to attend the two day G-20 ministerial meeting, which among other things, will deliberate upon the current economic situation.

The G-20 meeting of the Finance Ministers and central bank governors beginning July 19 will also be attended by RBI Governor D Subbarao and Deputy Governor Urjit Patel.

Chidambaram, according to sources, would be leaving for Moscow on July 18.

G-20, which has been on the forefront to collectively deal with the global economic slowdown, is a club of 20 developed and developing nations, including US, Canada, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, UK, Russia, Japan, Australia and South Korea.

The meeting of the Finance Ministers and central bank Governors would be followed by G-20 Summit to be held at St. Petersberg on September 5-6.

The Ministerial meeting will focus on steps to deal with the global economic woes and persistent slowdown.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently lowered the global growth forecast for 2013 to 3.1 per cent, from the earlier 3.3 per cent. For 2014 also it has cut the growth forecast to 3.8 per cent, from 4 per cent.

The IMF has also slashed its 2013 growth forecast for developing countries to 5 per cent, including a lower forecast for China, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa.

The ministers would also discuss the report of the G-20 Framework Working Group which focuses on assessment of past and elaboration of new structural reforms' commitments, on approaches to strengthen the G-20 countries' medium-term fiscal frameworks and on outline of further action plan.

The set of documents, prepared as an outcome of the Framework Working Group Meeting, will be deliberated upon by the G-20 Ministers. The Framework Working Group is co-chaired by Canada and India.