IMF director offers to belly dance for Congress

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday pleaded with Congress to approve changes to the bank’s operations — and said she’s willing to do a song-and-dance routine to make it happen.

“I have threatened even doing belly dancing. If that’s what it takes, then I will deliver it. But I hope it doesn’t,” Christine Lagarde joked to a financial industry audience in Washington.

{mosads}IMF officials have pressed for the United States to approve changes that would give other countries, including China and Russia, a bigger say in the bank’s operations.

Obama administration officials pushed for passage of the reforms earlier this year, seeking to have them included in legislation providing financial aid to Ukraine.

Senate Democrats tried to include the IMF language in the Ukraine aid bill, but House Republicans shot down the changes, arguing they would reduce American influence at the bank.

Lagarde thanked the financial community for their support during her appearance at the Bretton Woods Committee, but said she needs help persuading Congress to act.

“We are still, I feel like, a bit of a bargaining toy between various … people who actually believe that the IMF is OK,” she said.

“It’s above my floor and I hope you can help.”

The IMF in 2012 proposed rules that would double member financial contributions to its general loan fund and give advanced developing countries more voting rights.

The U.S. has a 16.73 percent voting share in the IMF, which effectively gives Congress veto power over the changes, since the reform package needs 85 percent of all shares to agree.