Mantega Says Brazil Is Buying $10 Billion IMF Bond

Brazil will buy up to $10 billion in debt from the International Monetary Fund, converting the country into a net creditor of the IMF for the first time, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said.

Brazil will invest part of its foreign reserves to buy the two-year bonds denominated in the IMF’s special drawing rates, with quarterly interest payments based on the weighted average of the short-term rate in the U.S., the euro region, Japan and the U.K. That rate currently stands at 0.25 percent.

Mantega said today’s “radical change” would help Brazil diversify its reserves.

Brazil, Russia, India and China, the so-called BRIC nations, have agreed to buy as much as $80 billion in IMF debt to help the Washington-based lender provide financing to countries hurt by the global crisis. The BRICs have favored the bonds instead of regular contributions as they wrangle with members over redistributing the IMF’s voting power.

Mantega said the four countries are still negotiating to allow the IMF to manage their contributions through the New Agreements to Borrow facility. He said an agreement to change the NAB’s rules to give the BRICs more of a voice in the emergency credit facility could be reached as early as today.

The BRICs are pushing to change the NAB’s rules before 2011 so they collectively have enough representation to block any decision, much in the same way that the U.S.’s 17 percent share in the IMF gives it a de-facto veto over many decisions made by the fund.