Singapore, Sept. 17 (Agencies): Developing nations led by India and Brazil today virtually lost their campaign to stall the move for enhanced powers to China and three other countries at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with its managing director R.D. Rato claiming “consensus” on the controversial proposal a day before the voting was concluded.

The decisions arrived at the IMF meeting showed there was a “consensus” on the increase in voting powers for China, South Korea, Turkey and Mexico, Rato said after the meeting.

“Although there are views on both sides about the voting that is taking place, the decision showed there is a consensus (on the ad hoc increase in quota)... The communique issued at the end of the committee meeting is an unanimous statement,” Rato, who addressed a news conference with the committee chairman and British chancellor of exchequer Gordon Brown, said.

Earlier in the day, finance minister P. Chidambaram made a strong plea against the “flawed formula” to restructure voting rights of the member countries, saying the world body should instead adopt “comprehensive reforms to move towards adequate, equitable and appropriate representations for the developing countries”.

Trade talks

British chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown today voiced strong optimism that a “basis for a deal” had been reached to bring moribund five-year-old trade liberalisation talks to a successful conclusion.

Plainspeak

What do you understand if someone tells you they are about to withdraw accommodation? For most people, nothing at all.

What the phrase, often uttered by European Central Bank boss Jean-Claude Trichet, actually means in the world of high finance is that the central banker plans to raise interest rates.

Angel Gurria of the OECD, an economics think-tank, believes bankers and economists must speak simply, whatever their mother tongue, and he made the point while attending one of the world’s biggest gatherings of financial leaders, in singapore. “Why not say I'm going to raise interest rates?” asked Gurria, who was finance minister in Mexico himself.