Finance officials at IMF/World Bank meetings

WORLD BANK PRESIDENT ROBERT ZOELLICK

ON RISING FOOD PRICES

"Of particular concern is food prices. This is the biggest threat today to the world's poor, where we risk losing a generation. ... Already 44 million people have fallen into poverty as a result of rising food prices over the last year. We estimate that a further 10 percent rise in the food price index could push 10 million more people into poverty."

ON THE MIDDLE EAST

"Policy will be as important as money. We must act now. Waiting for the situation to stabilize will mean lost opportunities. In revolutionary moments, the status quo is not a winning hand."

MEXICAN CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR AUGUSTIN CARSTENS

(in interview with Reuters)

ON IMPACT OF U.S. SOFTNESS

"The indicator to which Mexico has a closer correlation is industrial production. And as the recent figures show, industrial production in the U.S. is performing relatively well. So even though I acknowledge that there have been some mixed figures about the U.S. economy, we still are optimistic about the evolution of the Mexican economy."

ON RISING ENERGY COSTS

"The pricing rule that Mexico follows for gasoline sort of eliminates some of the volatility from our CPI so that's one advantage that we have. But especially in grains and other food items volatility is very important for us because food is a very high component of our CPI."

ON RATES OUTLOOK

"We are following a very cautious approach. If we see that commodity prices are not only having a one-off impact on CPI but is affecting in a more fundamental way the dynamics of price setting in Mexico and is also feeding into inflationary expectations, at that point we might decide to adjust our monetary policy stance."

GREEK FINANCE MINISTER GEORGE PAPACONSTANTINOU:

ON RECOVERY:

"This is not just wishful thinking, we are seeing some very encouraging first indicators that we're nearing a turnaround. ... There's still a lot of hard work ahead. We're starting to turn a corner and this is very positive."

ON DEBT RESTRUCTURING RUMORS:

"There is also an official clarification of the German government that this is not the position of the government and it not the position of the Greek government and it is not the position of the institutions supporting the program. Full stop."

ON WHY IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO RESTRUCTURE:

"The negative reasons why we won't go through a restructuring exercise is because the pain and the cost is bigger than the benefit."

ON HIGHER INTEREST RATES:

"Any increase in interest rates may be driven by concerns about inflation...It has effects on borrowing costs, there's no question about that. However, do bear in mind that Greek borrowing costs, the part, the increase in interest rate is very small. The biggest part has to do with the spread. If market confidence returns, this will more than outweigh any increase in interest rate costs."

ON GREECE'S DEBT SITUATION AND ECONOMY

"We are starting to turn the corner and this is very positive, even though unemployment is going up."

"No one should underestimate the determination of the Greek government."

"The negative reason why we won't go through the restructuring process is that the pain and the cost is greater than the benefit."

"There are a lot of rumors going on at the moment."

ON PRIVATIZATIONS

"We want to front load the programme."

"We will go through an open tender process."

GERMAN FINANCE MINISTER WOLFGANG SCHAEUBLE:

ON REPORT OF GERMAN DEBT RESTRUCTURING PLAN FOR GREECE:

"This report is without any basis"

ECB'S AXEL WEBER:

ON GERMANY'S DEFICIT:

"If the economic development is a little better, the deficit rate of 2 percent is in sight."

ON ECB MONETARY POLICY:

"My opinion is that the present direction of the ECB monetary policy ... is still helping the recovery and is expansive."

"We have to expect a further normalization of the monetary policy."

"I expect that for us as central banks a further reduction of the supporting measures and special measures for the banks will be coming on the agenda in the course of this year."

IMF MANAGING DIRECTOR DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN

ON GREECE

"We have built -- let's talk about the Greek program -- with the government with the assumption that the government really wants not to restructure their debt and to repay it."

"Nothing has changed.

"The market can talk for hours about the usefulness of doing this or doing that. So far we are working with the programme as it is established. For it to work, we need the country to do exactly as it should, even if it is difficult."

IMFC CHAIR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM

ON INFLATION RISKS

"It is a concern. It is one of the emerging risks we see on the horizon."

ON ASIAN CREDIT GROWTH

"It is a concern. It is one of the emerging risks that we see on the horizon and the combination of strong credit growth and some economies that are approaching an overheating situation, when taken together with the possibility of supply shocks in the commodities sphere, raise very significant concerns over inflation as well as over a possible rise in interest rates."

MEXICAN FINANCE MINISTER ERNESTO CORDERO:

ON MEXICO AND IMBALANCES:

"We have no doubt that in Mexico's particular case, we don't exhibit any imbalances in any of the indicators, whether external, fiscal or internal. So I don't believe Mexico ... would merit us being submitted to any more detailed second round review.

ON IMPACT OF VIOLENCE ON INVESTMENT:

"Without a doubt in certain parts of the country (violence) could be creating some obstacles to investments. But at an aggregate national level there's no evidence that it's having an impact."