COVID-19: IMF to deploy full USD 1 trillion lending capacity to support countries

Mentioning the COVID-19 outbreak as “a crisis like no other,” IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said the international lender is planning to use all its USD 1 trillion lending capacity to assist countries battling the deadly outbreak of Coronavirus.

Around 102 member nations are seeking assistance from the organization to fight the coronavirus, the lending agency’s head Georgieva said.

“It is a crisis like no other. In scope, we are now in the worst recession since the Great Depression. We are experiencing a 3% contraction of global GDP, and 170 countries are going to see income per capita falling versus what we expected three months ago for 160-for them to go up,” IMF’s MD Georgieva told reporters at the start of the annual spring meeting of IMF & the World Bank.

“We now have more than 30 countries applying for emergency financing. We are prioritizing rapidly responding to these requests, recognizing how critical this lifeline is for them. We are also very keen to see what more can be done,” the IMF Managing Director said.

India’s Proactive Decision Draws Praise:

It is worth noting that the International Monetary Fund has said that it supports India’s proactive decision of imposing a nationwide lockdown in its fight against Coronavirus.

“The Indian government implemented a nationwide lockdown despite the economic slowdown and IMF supports India’s proactive decision,” Chang Yong Rhee, the Director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, said.

Notably, more than 134,754 people have died from COVID-19 so far and the number of confirmed infections has reached 2,088,640 worldwide, according to the data by Worldometer. The deadly contagion is taking a heavy toll on the US, which has become the epicenter of this pandemic with over 28,000 fatalities.

About the IMF:

  • The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an inter-governmental organization.
  • It was established to stabilize the exchange rate in the international trade.
  • The IMF is a quota-based institution.
  • Quotas are the building blocks of the IMF’s financial as well as governance structure.
  • Quotas are denominated in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), the IMF’s unit of account.

Objectives of IMF:

  • To promote global monetary cooperation in the world.
  • To secure financial stability by minimizing the exchange rate stability.
  • To facilitate a balanced trade among countries.
  • Promoting high employment via economic assistance and sustainable economic development.
  • To alleviate poverty across the world.

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