Saturday, March 21, 2009

EU urges doubling of IMF capital


The Brussels meeting is taking place ahead of April's G20 summit in London
EU leaders have urged the G20 leading economies to double the money available to the International Monetary Fund to help countries in financial difficulty.

Leaders meeting in Brussels said they would provide up to 75bn euros ($102bn; £71bn) in loans in an effort to boost the IMF's capital to $500bn (£344bn).

They also doubled to 50bn euros (£47bn; $68bn) the amount of emergency funding available to help non-eurozone members.

But the bloc resisted US calls to spend even more to revive national economies.

They said they wanted first to gauge the effects of the 200bn-euro ($274bn; £188bn) stimulus package they have been implementing, and that the focus should be on reforming the global financial system.

A call to others to "avoid all form of protectionist measures" was overshadowed by an announcement that the French carmaker, Renault, would move a production line from Slovenia back to France.

France last month agreed to give Renault and Peugeot Citroen each 3bn euros ($4bn; £2.8bn) in loans if they kept French plants open.

The European Commission has demanded clarification about the plan.

SOURCE: BBC NEWS

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