Pranab to attend Fund-Bank meet in U.S.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will visit the U.S. next month to take part in the annual Fund-Bank meet, which may among other things discuss giving greater say to emerging economies including India.

Mr. Mukherjee, who will be accompanied by Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla and Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu, is also expected to take part in the meeting of Commonwealth Finance Ministers in Washington on October 8, official sources said here.

The annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank will take place in Washington from October eight to ten.

The meeting assumes importance for developing countries since the World Bank had earlier this year agreed to increase the voting rights of developing countries by 3.13 per cent.

With this, the share of India would rise from 2.77 per cent to 2.91 per cent.

IMF had also said it would finalise the quota reforms by the end of the year.

There is demand for greater voting powers to developing countries to reflect the changing world economic order.

A meeting of commonwealth finance ministers will discuss the potential relationship between this grouping and G20, sources added.