The International Monetary Fund (IMF) board will meet this week [6 April] to discuss how to use the extra $2.8 billion windfall it made from selling 403.3 tons of gold late last year. The windfall profits should be used to cancel the debts of poor countries facing crises outside their control.
The IMF will issue a $450 million loan to Pakistan which risks plunging Pakistan into debt that it can ill-afford. Oxfam is calling for the cancellation of all multilateral and bilateral loans to Pakistan, and for debt relief to be given on emergency assistance from the IMF.
Poor countries are being forced to cut back on their economic crisis-response spending too soon. Education and social protection budgets are particularly badly affected. Oxfam is calling on the IMF to take steps to reverse this trend.
Contrary to the positive picture painted by the International Monetary Fund in its 2010 World Economic Outlook, poor countries are being forced to cut back on their economic crisis-response spending too soon.