Overnight the IMF is going to double in size, and barely a word is being said about it. I only noticed the claim in the last few paragraphs of a report that Britain will give more to help bailout Europe.
It is against this background, that the plan to boost the “firepower” of the IMF is now being urgently drawn up. The IMF currently has total funds of almost one trillion dollars. However, it has already lent, or is committed to lend, the majority of its funds and therefore has about $380 billion (£240 billion) of “available” reserves. The cost of a full eurozone rescue has been estimated at almost £2 trillion.
Therefore, for the IMF to be able to intervene in a worst case scenario, which some economists think is increasingly likely, it may have to more than double in size – even with some help from the EU.[2]
But this doubling in size is the minimum, hence the "more than double in size". Estimates of how much could be required to bailout Europe range from 1 trillion to 4 trillion Euros.
[1] A Bigger, Bolder Role Is Imagined For the IMF, WP, 20/4/2009
[2] Britain poised to provide billions for new rescue package as euro crisis deepens, Daily Telegraph, 3/11/2011
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