Saudi Arabia won't offer cash to IMF

Washington: Saudi Arabia has no plans to offer extra funds to the International Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Ebrahim Al Assaf said on Saturday, quashing speculation it would offer cash to help the IMF battle the global financial crisis.

"There were lots of rumours that we were coming here to pay the bill, there is no such thing," Al Assaf said in an interview on the sidelines of a meeting of leaders from the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies.

Saudi Arabia, the IMF's largest Arab shareholder and the only Arab state in the G20, has been urged to chip in to ensure the IMF has enough resources to protect emerging economies from the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

Earlier this month during a visit to the oil-producing kingdom, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Saudi Arabia should contribute more to the IMF. Al Assaf said Brown also suggested China, another country with rich foreign exchange reserves, should contribute more.

"This is his opinion. This is not our opinion. We are not going to pay more or less than others. We have been playing our role responsibly and we will continue to play our role, but we are not going to finance the institutions just because we have large reserves," Al Assaf said.

"These reserves are for the development of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the minister said. "There is no specific emergency fund for the IMF or any other institution."

Quota system

He said the kingdom has been a generous contributor to international institutions, and said Saudi Arabia should have an "appropriate" quota at the IMF and its sister institution, the World Bank, and would want to maintain it.

"More importantly, our policy with regard to the oil market is very important and responsible when we invest in increasing our capacity in order to have stability in the oil market, which of course is reflected in the stability of the financial markets as well as the global economy at large," Al Assaf said.

He said Saudi King Abdullah told the other G20 leaders about the country's plans to implement a $400 billion programme to invest in the oil and government sectors over the next five years.

The summit brought together heads of state from emerging powers, such as China and Saudi Arabia, with leaders of old-line advanced economies for the first time in a glimpse of a new era of global power sharing.

The group backed a rapid action plan to tackle the economic crisis and erect defences against future threats, and said they would seek ways to give emerging countries more say in global economic councils.

Gulf countries have been among those who have suffered from the financial crisis, particularly Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE, where government-run investment funds have heavy exposure to US and European stocks.