Brasília – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has passed a series of measures geared at raising funds among its member countries and passing them over, by means of loans, to poor countries, in order to provide financial aid to them during the ongoing world crisis, as announced yesterday (29th) by the executive board of the Fund.
In a press release, the managing director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, says that the multilateral financial institution may loan up to US$ 17 billion, over the next five years, to the poorer countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and other regions of the world. Out of the funds, US$ 8 billion may be disbursed by 2011.
According to Dominique, “this is an unprecedented reinforcement of the support that the IMF provides to poor countries.” He claimed that the measure is a response to the world economic crisis, which has been a “hard blow” for everyone, particularly impoverished nations.
He said that the IMF has more than doubled its funding for financial aid to poor nations and that the newly announced funds, coupled with more agile clearing mechanisms, should contribute to prevent millions of people from returning to situations of poverty.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
