Aug 26 (Reuters) - Following are details about the origins and decisions of the Group of Twenty (G20), a global group of leading emerging market and industrialised countries.
GROUP OF TWENTY (G20):
-- The Group of Twenty first met in Berlin in December 1999. It was created as a response to the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, which exposed the need to bring emerging market nations into the core of global economic discussion and governance.
-- Its 19 members are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
-- The European Union is also a member, represented by the rotating Council presidency and the European Central Bank. G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meet annually.
-- The Group of Twenty represents around 90 per cent of global gross national product, 80 per cent of world trade (including EU intra-trade) and two-thirds of the world's population.
* WHAT HAS THE G20 DONE?
-- A 2004 meeting in Berlin agreed the G20 Accord for Sustained Growth (the Accord) and the G20 Reform Agenda.
-- The Accord laid out guidelines that members' experience suggested could foster sustainable economic growth and development, both nationally and globally.
-- The Reform Agenda set out the steps taken by each country to implement the Accord. It also has committed itself to higher standards of transparency and exchange of information on tax in order to combat abuses of the financial system and tax evasion.
* WHAT HAPPENED AT THE LAST MEETING?
-- The G20 agreed a $1.1 trillion deal in London on April 2 to combat the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
-- The IMF's war chest was tripled to $750 billion from $250 billion, giving it much more money to lend out to countries that run into financial trouble.
-- The IMF also will issue $250 billion in additional Special Drawing Rights for its member countries, which essentially is printing new money to improve global liquidity.
-- A new programme will finance more than $250 billion of trade over two years, 40 percent publicly financed and 60 percent privately.
-- At the summit in London, they also agreed to publish black lists of tax havens and tighten financial rules on bonuses, and to bring hedge funds and credit rating agencies under closer supervision.
Sources: Reuters/www.G20.com (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Stephen Nisbet)