MOSCOW (Reuters) - The New Development Bank that is being established by the BRICS emerging nations is a good stimulus to develop infrastructure in member states, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Tuesday.
Siluanov, speaking to journalists ahead of the meeting of heads of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in Russia's city of Ufa, said also that the group needed to establish the bank to compete with other international institutions.
The bank, with $50 billion in initial capital, is to start looking into first projects by year-end, Siluanov said. He added that he hopes that international rating agencies will rate the bank's debt "soon" - a necessary condition for the bank to start operating.
Separately, Siluanov said that the International Monetary Fund and the European Union should have acted sooner to resolve Greece's debt problems.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning, Darya Korsunskaya and Elena Fabrichnaya; writing by Lidia Kelly; editing by Polina Devitt)