Latin Americans meet to discuss global recession

Costa de Sauipe (Brazil), Dec 17: Leaders of the 36th summit of Common Market of the South (Mercosur) discussed steps to deal with the global financial crisis on Tuesday, Dec 16.

Ecuador President Rafael Correa Tuesday, Dec 16 proposed the formation of a Bank of the South and a joint fund of Latin American countries' foreign exchange reserves.

"The bank would strengthen fiscal policies and promote employment and public investment," he said.

A new financial structure, with a common currency for commercial exchange instead of the US dollar has been proposed by Correa.

Leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean have gathered at the northeastern Brazilian resort of Costa do Sauipe for the summits of four regional blocs - Mercosur, Unasur, Rio Group and the Conference of Latin American and Caribbean countries - Tuesday, Dec 16 and Wednesday, Dec 17.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)