India announces $10 billion for debt-ridden eurozone
India on Tuesday announced a $10 billion contribution
to the IMF’s additional $430 billion financial firewall to help the
debt-wracked 17-nation eurozone so that the faltering world economy is
protected against the spread of any financial contagion.
The
announcement was made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his address
at the Plenary Session of the seventh summit of the Group of developed
and developing countries (G-20) in the Mexican resort town of Los Cabos
against the backdrop of growing calls to nations to increase
contributions to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the bailout
fund.
India’s contribution along with pledges by
other member countries of the five-nation BRICS bloc has helped increase
IMF’s resources and give a boost to the $430 billion fund being used as
a firewall to support struggling eurozone economies.
“The
International Monetary Fund has a critical supportive role to play in
stabilising the eurozone. All members must help the Fund to play this
role, I am happy to announce that India has decided to contribute $10
billion to the IMF’s additional firewall of $430 billion,” he told the
world leaders at the seventh summit of the grouping which accounts for
80 per cent the world’s GDP.
India has previously
pledged to make contributions to the bailout fund but did not disclose
the exact amount of its contribution to the fund.
According
to Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyo, the BRICS is committed to
pledge $60 billion to boost the firewall. Besides India and China, the
other countries in the bloc are Brazil, Russia and South Africa.
The
IMF fund will serve to help governments that are struggling to cope
with debt repayments but eurozone leaders still faced pressure from
their G-20 peers to make reforms to head off future financial crisis.
Calls
were being made to the eurozone to put in place a bigger financial
firewall to combat the crisis before other countries will pour more cash
into the IMF
Noting that developed countries have
expanded the resources of the IMF enormously, largely to support
programmes in rich countries, Dr. Singh said that steps are now needed
to be taken to substantially expand the resource base of Multilateral
Development banks so that they have the firepower to help developing
countries pursue their development goals.
Take By: The Hindu News
0 comments:
Post a Comment