IMF’s lending power doubles as pledges top $430 million

IMF members, including the Group of Twenty (G-20) advanced and emerging market economies, on Friday  pledged fresh funding to the institution boosting its lending capacity by more than $430 billion.

The new commitments would almost double IMF's lending power, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said at a news conference on Friday.
 
Member countries of the IMF also agreed that it was necessary to erect a firewall of additional resources to contain any further financial crisis.

According to Lagarde, the global economy is in a phase of ''timid'' recovery and still faced high risks. The IMF needed to participate in the international recovery effort by building additional firepower to promote global economic stability.

Since the start of the global economic crisis in 2007, IMF said, it has committed more than $300 billion in loans to its member countries. In response to the crisis, the IMF also reformed its policies toward low-income countries and quadrupled its concessional lending.

In a joint statement issued after a 20 April IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, the G-20 and the IMF's policy-setting International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) said there are firm commitments to increase resources available to the IMF by more than $430 billion.

''These resources will be available for the whole membership of the IMF and not earmarked for any particular region,'' an IMF release said.