The Kremlin published its priorities
Monday for an upcoming meeting of
the G20, calling
for
the creation of a supranational
reserve currency to be issued by
international institutions as part
of a reform of the global financial
system.
The International
Monetary Fund should investigate
the possible creation of
a new reserve currency,
widening the list of reserve
currencies or using its already
existing Special Drawing Rights, or
SDRs, as a "superreserve currency
accepted by the whole of the
international community," the
Kremlin said in a statement issued
on its web site.
The Kremlin's
call for a common currency is not
the first in recent days.
Speaking at an economic conference
in Astana, Kazakhstan, last week,
Kazakh President Nursultan
Nazarbayev
proposed a
global currency called the "acmetal"
-- a conflation of the words "acme"
and "capital."
He also suggested that the Eurasian
Economic Community, a loose group of
five former Soviet republics
including Kazakhstan and Russia,
adopt a single noncash currency --
the yevraz -- to insulate itself
from the global economic crisis.
Nazarbayev's proposal did, however,
garner support from at least one
prominent source -- Columbia
University professor Robert Mundell,
who was awarded the Nobel Prize in
1999 for his role in creating the
euro. Speaking
at the same conference with
Nazarbayev, he said the idea
had "great promise."
The Kremlin document also called for
national banks and international
financial institutions
to diversify their foreign currency
reserves. It said the global
financial system should be
restructured to prevent future
crises and proposed holding an
international conference after the
G20 summit to adopt
conventions on a new global
financial structure.
