India triggers chain reaction among BRICS

India’s commitment of $10 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has prompted other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations to pledge various amounts to help bail out Euro zone nations.

Though Chinese President Hu Jintao spoke before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the G-20 meeting here, after Singh completed his speech, Jintao again got up to announce China had pledged $43 billion as support for the IMF, said sources privy to the development.

Before the G-20 meetings, $360 billion had already been pledged by various countries and it was expected BRICS nations would announce an additional $70 billion to raise the overall IMF firewall to $430 billion. Russia and Brazil announced support of $10 billion each, while South Africa pledged about $2 billion. Owing to a few other countries also announcing support, the total IMF corpus rose to $450 billion, against the $430 announced earlier.