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April 16, 2012 at 05:35 AM
European officials are coming to the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), if not exactly hat in hand, still looking for more money. Worries over Spain mean that additional funding might be needed to combat the euro zone debt crisis, which once again is beginning to look out of control.
Bloomberg reported Monday that the reluctance of non-European countries to boost contributions to the IMF is in part due to a perception that Europe has not done enough to combat the debt crisis. The European Central Bank (ECB), however, believes otherwise, and in the course of the April 20-22 IMF meeting, euro zone countries will try to convince nonbelievers.
In March, under pressure from other countries to do more to contain the crisis, European officials agreed to boost the rescue mechanism for troubled countries by 500 billion euros ($654 billion) by allowing the temporary and permanent rescue funds to operate together for a limited period of time.
They also agreed to contribute 150 billion euros to the IMF, and, according to ECB executive board member Joerg Asmussen, “European governments have done their part.” He added, “I would now expect our non-European friends and partners to contribute their part to IMF resources.”
