The International Monetary Fund Boosts Financial Aid to Poor Nations

Managing Director of IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn speaks at the World Bank/IMF spring meeting of 2009. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/3477828444/">World Bank Photo Collection (Flickr)</a>

Managing Director of IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn speaks at the World Bank/IMF spring meeting of 2009. Photo: World Bank Photo Collection (Flickr)

Earlier today the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced plans to provide up to $17 billion in desperately-needed assistance to poor nations over the next five years. IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn was quoted in a press release that outlined the details of this historic response by the fund.

This is an unprecedented scaling up of IMF support for the poorest countries, in sub-Saharan Africa and all over the world... The G20 asked the Fund to help respond to the global economic crisis, which has hit the low-income nations so hard, and we are responding with a historic set of actions in terms of support for the world’s poor. The new resources and new means of delivering them should help prevent millions of people from falling into poverty.

Tags:

global economic crisis, IMF, G-8, Sub-Saharan Africa