G20 to draft road map toward macroeconomic policy benchmarks-Kudrin.

SEOUL, November 12 (Itar-Tass) -- At the G20 summit in Seoul an
agreement will be reached on the need to move toward exchange rates
flexibility. However, at this summit no specific decisions will be made,
it is expected to give start to a "road map," Russian Deputy Prime
Minister, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told the media on Thursday.
"We need to move along the path of increasing the flexibility of
exchange rates. Here at the summit, someone suggested setting restrictions
on the current account of the balance of payments," Kudrin said. "So far
we have been unable to agree this policy will be the main one, but we
tasked the IMF and the ministers of finance to probe into such issues by
the next summit," he added." The decision has been taken, we are working
on this theme and we are developing mechanisms. But at this summit no such
decisions will be taken."
"Today, we shall most probably agree to develop a "road map," said
Kudrin.
"We have agreed that the work will be done to draft proposals for the
parameters of targeting the current account. Within the framework of the
roadmap the dates will be determined for identifying such indicators. The
IMF will present a report on these guidelines and on how to implement
them," Kudrin said.
"The main proposal is the one for the current account, it looks
interesting, but there are others, too," he said. "Those for other
quantitative indicators, such as deficit and debt are parameters close to
the Maastricht agreement."
Kudrin replied in the affirmative to the question if the "road map"
would bring about a mechanism of more flexible exchange rates. "The
discussion of positions will be the main result of the summit, it will be
a serious groundwork from which to build up to find solutions," he said.
He added that "on the sidelines of the summit inflation is being
discussed."
"Basically, all are oriented towards fairly stringent restrictions on
inflation," he said.

-0-str