(Reuters) - Asia-Pacific finance officials agreed that any protectionist measures, especially in the agricultural sector, are not helping global economic growth, Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Thursday.

Siluanov also said that any protectionist measures in the agriculture sphere would be "short-sighted".

A special joint ministerial statement said that the finance ministers of APEC economies "will also remain vigilant of other commodity prices, highlighting the need to avoid export bans, and other restrictions that are inconsistent with WTO rules in response to rapid increases in agricultural commodity prices."

August 30, 2012

Source: Reuters

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