G20 draft communique lists four indicators: Russia

A draft statement by Group of 20 finance ministers lists four indicators including the current account for measuring global imbalances, Russia's deputy finance minister said on Friday.

The meeting in Paris has been wrangling over which indicators it would agree to use in a process aimed to help correct the imbalances that led to the global financial crisis.

Sources said China had been holding out against the inclusion of measurements of reserves and real exchange rates in the package.

Russian Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said the list included current account, real exchange rate, public deficits and private sector debt. We are concerned that there are so few (indicators), he added. We would prefer a wider selection of indicators, probably money supply, debt policy.

Pankin also said the draft reflected unanimous agreement that the list of currencies used to calculate the International Monetary Fund's SDR basket should be widened.

He said generally the language on exchange rates showed no sharp change from previous G20 statements.