G20 finance ministers, central bank governors to discuss debt crisis in Mexico

G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will discuss how to strengthen the support mechanisms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) against the eurozone debt crisis at a meeting here this weekend.

The G20 finance ministerial meeting comes less than a week after Europe concluded a series of negotiations to rescue Greece.

Mexican Deputy Finance Minister Gerardo Rodriguez said Thursday they would seek to raise 500 billion U.S. dollars to cushion the impacts of the eurozone debt crisis.

“We hope to be able to give signals of commitment to strengthening the support mechanisms and on Sunday, when the communique is released, we hope it will be like that,” Rodriguez said at a press conference.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has constantly called on all developed and developing countries to pump money into the IMF global financial “firewall” to protect countries against the risk of contagion.

Agustin Carstens, governor of the Bank of Mexico, said the discussion on injecting money into the IMF could be held as early as March.

Economists said Europe is considering creating a fund of 750 billion euros (960 billion dollars), with 250 billion euros (320 billion dollars) from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and 500 billion euros (640 billion dollars) from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

The seventh G20 summit will be held in Los Cabos, northwest Mexico, on June 18 and 19.