Poor countries with loans from the IMF can continue to pay no interest until the
end of 2014, the Fund's board said on Friday, as their economies are still
recovering from the global economic crisis. The IMF's zero-interest loan
program for low-income countries had been set to expire at the end of this
year. "The executive board decision to keep interest rates at zero ... is
testament to the Fund's continued support for low-income countries since the
global economic crisis hit in 2009," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde
said in a statement. The IMF decided in 2009 to allow countries eligible for
its anti-poverty loan program to pay zero interest on loans in light of the
financial crisis.The Fund also set a target to raise $17 billion to lend to the poorest countries, which are threatened by the risk of euro-zone contagion and by a drop-off in foreign aid after the global recession. IMF's Lagarde has pushed to meet that goal, seeking to ease concerns that the IMF and donor nations may turn a blind eye to the world's poor as they focus on containing the euro zone crisis.
In September, the IMF said it would distribute a $3.8 billion windfall from gold sales to its 188 member countries if they agreed to commit most of the money to the anti-poverty loan program.
1 comment:
The IMF and OBR must must be cheerleaders for capitalism otherwise they'd never get jobs as an economic forecasters. Unfortunately being cheerleaders has 2 serious negative consequences: (1) their models are the same timeless neo-classic junk that failed to predict a recession (2) anyone daring to tell the truth would just not last in the job. To put it more plainly, the IMF could recommend austerity because their model predicted recovery. If their model had predicted slump they'd have a much harder time recommending austerity! Same for the OBR but change 'recommend' to 'endorse'.
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