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Emerging economies agree to cope with financial crisis

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-09 10:30

SAO PAULO -- Four of the world's fastest-growing economies would take measures to reduce the impact of the global financial turmoil, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Saturday.

Financial ministers from Brazil, Russia, India and China, or the BRIC nations, had agreed to cooperate with each other to boost trade and capital flow, said Kudrin, who is attending an annual meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) major industrial and emerging-market countries.

He noted that the financial crisis troubling developed countries was  yet to hit bottom and predicted a recession for the United States and the European Union next year, whereas the economies of the BRIC nations would continue to expand.

However, Kudrin admitted that amid global economic slowdown, Russia's economic growth in 2009 would be lowered to 3.5 percent, down from a previous projection of 5.5 percent.

Finance ministers and central bank governors from the G20 nations began the two-day meeting in Sao Paulo Saturday.

Founded in 1999 as an informal arena to facilitate dialogue between major industrial and emerging-market countries, the G20 accounts for 85 percent of the world's economy and about two-thirds of the world's population.