India attacks 'flawed' IMF reform

India has attacked changes to the voting structure of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after it saw its share of the vote decrease.

Its comments came after the 184 IMF nations agreed a deal on Monday to give some emerging economies a bigger vote.
While China, South Korea, Turkey and Mexico all saw their voting quotas rise, India's declined.
India said the reforms were "hopelessly flawed". The IMF has now pledged to overhaul its voting system by 2008.

New formula

Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said it would "hold the IMF to its promise" of a complete reform of the voting system within two years.

"We may have lost the vote but we have not lost the argument," ,he said.

Under the temporary reforms agreed at the IMF's annual meetings in Singapore on Monday, India saw its voting quota drop slightly to 1.91% from 1.95%.
Mr Chidambaram said the reform formula used to determine Monday's changes - including a country's GDP and market openness - did not accurately reflect the economic might of emerging economies such as India.
India wants the next formula to take into account the need of large developing economies to protect their farmers and young industries from foreign competition

.