Japan offers $2.7 bn to IMF for helping low-income countries

I / Istanbul October 05, 2009, 14:56 IST

Japan will provide about $2.7 billion to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) programme to help low-income countries.      

"Japan, as a country that has been making the largest contribution to the Fund's lending program to low-income countries, will commit to providing support both for financial resources and subsidising interest," Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said on Sunday.      

"We must not forget that the current crisis has seriously affected low-income countries," Fujii added. The assistance will not pose any financial burden on Japan because it will be fully covered by the IMF's special drawing rights allocated to the country.      

At the IMFC meeting, Fujii and other participants agreed the IMF will give more voting power to emerging and developing economies, as agreed on at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh late last month.      

"We support a shift in quota share to dynamic emerging market and developing countries of at least 5 per cent from over-represented countries to under-represented countries using the current quota formula as the basis to work from," the IMF said in a statement.     

The participants urged the international lending agency to study and report by the next annual meeting of the IMFC on the future financing role of the fund, including a measure to strengthen its capacity to help its members cope with financial volatility. The next meeting will be held in Washington on April 24, 2010.