MOSCOW, October 11 (RIA Novosti) - The International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde joked before reporters Thursday that she would belly dance in front of the US Congress if it resulted in the banking reforms the institution is looking for, the Washington political insider’s newspaper The Hill reported.
“I have threatened even doing belly dancing. If that’s what it takes, then I will deliver it. But I hope it doesn’t,” the 58-year-old former French Finance Minister said in jest before the news conference, the source said.
Lagarde, who is participating in this week’s IMF and G20 fall sessions in Washington DC, pleaded with the US Congress, which she claimed was stalling the quota and governance reforms that had been proposed by the institution.
The proposals include doubling the requirements of members’ financial contributions to the bank’s general loan fund to a total of $755 billion. They also propose increasing the vote share of emerging economies such as China, Russia and India. This is something US Senate Republicans are reluctant to accept; as a result, the proposal has been blocked for nearly four years, despite support from President Barack Obama and most of the Senate Democrats.
The United States presently has a 16.73 percent vote share in the organization, giving it an effective veto power on amendments to the institution, which require an 85 percent supermajority in order to pass.
“Everybody knows that it is currently stuck before the U.S. Congress,” Lagarde said, cited by Reuters.
“We very much hope that the different branches of the U.S. authorities ... will understand the relevance of having an IMF that is representative of the global economy and includes the people that should sit at the table," she added.
The IMF chief’s comments were echoed in the Communique of representatives from the Group of 24 developing nations, which also met in Washington Thursday. The communique stated that the organization remains “deeply disappointed that the IMF quota and governance reforms agreed to in 2010 have not yet come into effect,” and urges “the U.S. to complete ratification.” The communique adds that “this remains a significant impediment to the credibility and effectiveness of the IMF and unjustifiably delays forward-looking commitments."
