G20 expected to unravel all the G7 reforms, due to US Admin whining

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G20 set to dilute big powers' demands on currencies

GROWTH VS AUSTERITY

The meeting in Moscow of finance officials from the G20 nations, which account for 90 percent of the world's gross domestic product and two-thirds of its population, also looked set to lay bare differences over the balance between growth and austerity policies.

The draft communique reflected a row brewing between Europe and the United States over extending a promise to reduce budget deficits beyond 2016. A pact struck in Toronto in 2010 will expire this year if leaders fail to agree to extend it at a G20 summit of leaders in St Petersburg in September.

The G20 put together a huge financial backstop to halt a market meltdown in 2009 but has failed to reach those heights since. At successive meetings, Germany has pressed the United States and others to do more to tackle their debts. Washington in turn has urged Berlin to do more to increase demand.

"It's very important to calibrate the pace of fiscal consolidation," Brainard said. "It's ... important to see demand in the euro area and some of that must take place through internal rebalancing."

The draft reaffirms G20 commitments to draw up credible medium-term fiscal plans but will also make allowance for the near-term economic downturns facing some countries, the G20 delegate said.

There will be no direct mention of fiscal targets, in response to U.S. pressure, reflecting its focus on running expansive policies until unemployment comes down.

The euro zone's largest economy, Germany, and the European Central Bank, wanted a new borrowing pledge - in line with their own tough medicine for the currency bloc's ailing periphery.

A European Union position paper set out the dispute in stark terms. It said the United States "was not ready to commit to a ... numerical target".

"The EU considers it essential to agree credible and ambitious targets," said the document, obtained by Reuters.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20130215/US-G20-CURRENCY/