Manmohan Singh's global economic re-engineering wins support at G-20

London, April 2 (ANI): Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's suggestion to substantially increase the existing resources for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) found acceptance among the world leaders of the G-20 nations, as IMF emerged the biggest beneficiaries at the London summit on Thursday.

"The IMF has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the G20 summit. The resources it has to help troubled economies will be increased to 500bn dollars," stated a BBC report in the evening.

"An overdraft facility will also be increased to 250bn dollars (in the IMF's currency, so-called Special Drawing Rights) that the world's poorest countries can call on," the report added.

Earlier, during the official dinner hosted by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had advocated 500 billion dollars for the IMF.

"We must declare our resolve to increase the resources available with the IMF substantially, by around 500 billion dollars over the next two years. This can be done initially through bilateral arrangements, an expansion of the NAB and other borrowing by the Fund. However, we should also signal that these are interim steps pending an increase in Fund quotas. The next quota review, normally due in 2013, should be advanced as much as possible, and we should aim at a doubling of IMF quotas at the very least," Dr. Singh had stated at the dinner.

"We should also agree on a fresh allocation of SDRs (special drawing rights) of around 250 billion dollars. This would provide the developing countries with about 80 billion dollars of usable resources at a time when liquidity is exceptionally tight," said Dr. Singh had added at the dinner. (ANI)