Commonwealth finance ministers urged the IMF and World Bank on Friday to extend aid measures to developing nations likely to face up to a $650 billion financing gap from the global crisis. At a meeting in Cyprus, they said that there was a need for more international support to already poor nations now facing the full brunt of the global economic downturn.
The IMF and the World Bank are meeting in Turkey next week. "We would like to hear that increased resources are being provided so the (financing) gap can be narrowed," said Ransford Smith, deputy secretary-general of the Commonwealth, a grouping of more than 50 countries which are overwhelmingly former British colonies.
Many of its members are poor developing nations. According to Commonwealth data, of the additional 90 million people worldwide now living below the poverty line, some 40 million of them are in Commonwealth member states. "There will be a financing gap in the region of $300-650 billion that will need to be met if developing countries are to be able to meet their needs," Smith said.
World Bank lending to poor nations has tripled this year and there was more access to IMF resources, a fact Smith said Commonwealth Finance Ministers recognised. "While recognising these, they underscored the importance of deepening and extending these measures," the Commonwealth Official said.