PARIS (Reuters) - Group of 20 negotiators have failed to reach agreement on a list of indicators by which to measure imbalances in the global economy and will leave it up to their finance ministers to try and seal a deal on Saturday, G20 sources said.
Even then, agreement is uncertain, the sources said.
"We are just about beginning to get into the drafting. The first draft could leave out specifics on the indicators," one source said.
"It would be up to the finance ministers tomorrow morning to finally put in either the agreed indicators or a wider list ... At this stage it is unclear whether the final commmunique will go with the short agreed list or a wider inclusive list."
Another source, a senior G20 negotiator, said talks on Friday night could produce a statement with the contentious areas bracketed and left for the finance ministers to thrash out.
"Today, I'll be highly surprised if we have a deal," the negotiator said.
China rejected on Friday plans to use real exchange rates and currency reserves to measure imbalances and also said the G20 should use trade figures rather than current account balances to assess economic distortions.
Sources said one compromise being floated was that China could be allowed to opt out of the balance of payments criterion and use its trade balance instead, although Canada and Germany voiced opposition to that.
The first G20 source said the idea of an opt-out was no longer on the table.
The negotiator concurred, saying: "It makes absolutely no sense if this indicator (current account) is not in the text.
"Current account balance has to be in there, and effective exchange rate and currency reserves are utmost important, so they also need to be in there."
(Reporting by Abhijit Neogy and Julien Toyer, writing by Mike Peacock)
