Dissent on key issues casts pall over G20 summit

The G20 Seoul Summit, which is to be held this evening, is still likely to be plagued by unresolved disagreements on key issues, including the foreign exchange rate.

On Nov. 10, King Yoon Kyung, a spokesperson for the G20, said at a press conference that the G20 deputy finance ministers still had not agreed on crucial controversial issues, like the U.S. quantitative easing and refraining from competitive currency depreciation, after 14 hours of intensive talks.

Kim said the door to the room where the preliminary discussions were held had to be opened because the debate was so animated and the room was getting hot, according to a report by Reuters.

The deputy finance ministers' meeting is supposed to have the final review and coordination of the draft of a document that is to be released after the two-day G20 Summit in Seoul.

There is concern that no substantial agreement can be reached at the summit if the deputy finance ministers meeting does not lead to any consensus today.

Observers were made even more uneasy by the remarks of the IMF Western Hemisphere Department Director Nicolás Eyzaguirre, who said on Nov. 9 that the United States may have to go even further on quantitative easing.

The Fed's decision to give another kick-start to the American economy by pumping 600 billion U.S. dollars into the purchase of treasury bonds, known as the second round of quantitative easing, has already attracted criticism from both developed and developing countries. China has already urged the United States to give an explanation of its action and adopt a good fiscal policy.

The Wall Street Journal reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already made it clear Germany would not support the U.S. proposal of setting a ceiling on a country's current account balance. She will raise the issue of monetary policy with the United States at the summit.
By Li Jia, People's Daily Online