China Japan move closer to support IMF

China and Japan said they will consult “very closely” on the issue after Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, asked members to commit as much as $500bn (£315bn) extra to the Washington-based global lender for possible bailouts.

Jun Azumi, the Japanese finance minister, said the pair would look at further funding to strengthen the IMF's financial base, following talks with his Chinese counterpart Xie Xuren in Toyko.
“Rather than make decisions independently, we’ve agreed to consult each other very closely,” he said. “Although a critical moment of the European issue has gone, we can never be optimistic.”

The IMF wants to ramp up its ability to attack Europe's debt crisis. The issue of increasing its firepower is expected to be top of the agenda at a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations on April 20.

“It’s important for Japan to check China’s intention on this, while China probably wants to increase its political influence if it puts up money,” Tomoko Fujii, a senior foreign exchange strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told Bloomberg.