Emerging states could intervene in eurozone crisis if necessary

Emerging countries can intervene in the eurozone debt crisis when they were asked and the current bailout efforts proved to be insufficient, South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said here on Friday, hours before a G20 financial minister meeting. "The resources of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) and the International Monetary Fund would be inadequate if the contagion (of the crisis in the euro area) continued," Gordhan was quoted by Les Echos, a local economic paper, as saying. According to the report, the minister said the BRICS countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, have "indicated that they would be capable to help the international institutions if they were asked" on the sidelines of a conference at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Gordhan also underlined that it was time for G20 leaders to show their leadership and determination to assure the world that eurozone debt crisis would not affect the rest of the world. Though this is not the first time that emerging countries expressed willingness to help the euro area in the crisis, there is still no clear proposal from the BRICS on exactly how to help so far. Financial ministers representing the major 20 economies of the world gathered in Paris on Friday for a two-day meeting focusing on how to effectively deal with the worrysome eurozone debt crisis.