Brussels, 19/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 18 June, the G20 summit in Los Cabos (Mexico) announced that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would be increasing its capital by US$456 billion to deal with the economic crisis. China has offered US$43 billion. The new cash will enable the IMF to almost double its aid for struggling nations, explained IMF director general Christine Lagarde. She said that large and small countries alike had responded to the IMF's call for funds and others may join them in the future.
Eurozone nations have boosted their contribution to the IMF by around €150 billion. The sovereign debt crisis is the main cause of financial concern at the moment and it is possible that it would be a eurozone nation that would benefit from the increased IMF cash. The G20 summit's final statement is expected to say that the cash is available for any IMF member and not earmarked for Europe in particular. Other European countries, like Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland, will provide between US$2 billion and US$15 billion.
BRICS. At the G20, the BRICS announced how much they will be contributing. China will provide US$43bn; Russia, India and Brazil US$10bn each and South Africa US$2bn. These emerging economies made their contributions conditional on the existing IMF funding (US$380bn) being used before the new contributions and also require full implementation of the changes to the IMF to give them increased voting rights. Other G20 nations announced their contributions before the summit, namely US$60bn from Japan, US$15bn from Saudi Arabia and US$15bn from South Korea. (MB/transl.fl)