IMF

[winston]

US$500m War Chest

Investors are looking ahead to a G20 meeting on Thursday and Friday , that will discuss boosting the International Monetary Fund's debt-crisis war chest to $500 billion.

Japan Wednesday pledged $60.0 billion to the fund, saying it was a critical part of the organisation's bid to boost a global firewall against Europe's debt crisis.

Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Poland are among the nations that have since pledged billions of dollars to the effort, but it was unclear what figure would be settled on at the meeting.

Source: AFP

[winston]

IMF raises $430 billion for crisis firewall by Paul Handley

The IMF raised $430 billion in new funds for crisis intervention Friday, with China and other emerging economic giants taking part despite worries the money will go to more eurozone bailouts.

After weeks of seeking pledges for its "global firewall", the International Monetary Fund said the BRICS group -- China, Russia, India and Brazil -- had helped put it over its goal.

"We have commitments that are north of $430 billion. That almost doubles the lending capacity of the fund," IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said after meetings of the IMF and the finance chiefs of the Group of 20 economic powers.

The BRICS and a handful of middle-sized economies came in with $68 billion at the end, though specific amounts were not mentioned.

That came on top of $200 billion promised by the eurozone, $60 billion from Japan, and $15 billion each from Britain, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.

Smaller amounts from the Nordic countries, other European governments and Singapore filled out the total.

http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?a ... &buid=3281

[winston]

Departing IMF economist rips fund's leadership

A departing senior IMF economist has excoriated the fund, alleging it failed to address Europe's crisis and "suppressed" its challenges, according to a letter published Friday.

In the letter obtained by CNN, Peter Doyle also accused Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, of being "tainted" by a faulty selection process.

Doyle, in a resignation letter dated June 18 to the IMF executive board, expressed regret, to have worked at the Washington-based global lender.

"After twenty years of service, I am ashamed to have had any association with the Fund at all," he wrote to Shakour Shaalan, dean of the board.

Doyle said it was not just a matter of the fund's incompetence amid the global crisis and in surveillance ahead of the eurozone crisis, but because the institution deliberately had shirked its responsibilities.

"The substantive difficulties in these crises, as with others, were identified well in advance but were suppressed here," he wrote.

"Timely sustained warnings were of the essence. So the failure of Fund to issue them is a failing of the first order," he said.

That inaction has caused suffering for many, including Greece, and "the second global reserve currency (euro) is on the brink."

The IMF has been "playing catch-up" in reactive responses in last-ditch efforts to save it, the economist charged.

Contacted by AFP for comment on the letter, IMF spokesman Bill Murray said: "We have no evidence his views were suppressed, nor any views were suppressed."

Doyle accused the IMF of "European bias", which he said was becoming more deeply entrenched, despite reform commitments.

"This fact is most clear in regard to appointments for managing director which, over the past decade, have all-too-evidently been disastrous."

Under a tacit agreement between the United States and Europe, a European heads the IMF and an American holds the presidency of the World Bank, its sister institution.

Without personally criticizing Lagarde, a former French finance minister and the first woman to helm the fund, Doyle said: "Even the current incumbent is tainted, as neither her gender, integrity, or elan can make up for the fundamental illegitimacy of the selection process."

According to a person close to the situation, Doyle has been a division chief responsible for non-eurozone countries Israel, Sweden and Denmark and has had no crisis country responsibilities in the European Department.

He is currently listed as an adviser in the European Department, the person said.


Source:AFP Global Edition

[winston]

$2.7 bn IMF gold sales profits to help poor

The International Monetary Fund approved Friday $2.7 billion in gold sales profits, to boost financing to low-income countries.

The IMF executive board earmarked the money for the global lender's concessional lending program, the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.

The distribution of the windfall profits will occur "only when members have given satisfactory assurances that an amount equivalent to at least 90 percent of the distribution will be made available to the PRGT," the institution said in a statement.

"This is a major step towards putting our important concessional lending operations for low-income members on a sustainable footing," IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said.

"During the 2009 financial crisis, we were able to boost financial assistance to our low-income country members, helping them weather the storm and preserve their hard-fought gains in the battle against poverty."

Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of activists advocating debt cancelation to fight poverty, cheered the board's decision, saying combined with a first installment of $1.1 billion, the IMF has put nearly $4 billion into the PRGT from the windfall gold profits.

"This translates into real relief for some of the world's poorest people," said Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network. "This has been a global campaign more than two years in the making and our work paid off."

The IMF sold more than 400 tonnes of gold in 2009-2010 in a bid to put the Washington-based lender's finances on a sound long-term footing.

Due to the high price of gold at the time, the IMF booked $3.8 billion in profits.


Source: AFP Global Edition

[winston]

[b]Strauss-Kahn paid hotel maid $1.5 million: report [

AFP - Disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn paid a settlement of $1.5 million (1.1 million euros) to the New York hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault, a French newspaper reported Sunday.


http://www.france24.com/en/20130120-str ... ion-report

[behappyalways]

IMF sours on BRICs and doubts eurozone recovery claims
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/fina ... laims.html

[behappyalways]

Cheap oil won't save the world economy, says IMF
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/econ ... s-IMF.html

[behappyalways]

IMF Urges Policies to Boost Demand as Global Recovery Downshifts
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... downshifts

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Caveat creditor as IMF chiefs mull unpayable debts
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/econ ... debts.html

[behappyalways]

IMF warns of Grexit risk as judgment day approaches
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/econ ... aches.html