Japan Ready To Offer Up To $100B In Loans To Intl Monetary Fund
Japan Ready To Loan Up To $100B To Intl Monetary Fund By Yuka Hayashi
Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Japan is ready to offer up to $100 billion in loans to the International Monetary Fund to help nations hit by the global financial crisis, its prime minister said.
In a column in The Wall Street Journal's Asian edition on Friday, Prime Minister Taro Aso said the financial resources of the IMF must be enhanced with a capital increase by member nations to ensure assistance to emerging nations, which drive global economic growth. Before such an increase takes place, 'Japan is prepared to lend up to $100 billion to the Fund as an interim measure,' he said.
The offer, to be presented at this weekend's Group of 20 meeting in Washington, is part of Tokyo's effort to play a leadership role in tackling the global crisis. Officials in Tokyo have said Japan, which has nearly $1 trillion in foreign-currency reserves, is ready to provide funds to the IMF if it needs more money for rescue packages. But they had previously not given an amount.
(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)
Japan will also call on other nations with large foreign-currency reserves, such as China and Middle Eastern oil-producing nations, to join its effort in making extra funds available for the IMF, government officials say.
Washington-based IMF has dipped into its reserves fund to provide emergency loans to Iceland, Hungary and Ukraine worth more than $30 billion. |
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