☰

M. Continuo

Poor countries need $25 billion to deal with crisis


    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The global crisis will have a major impact on the world's poorest countries and increase their financing needs by $25 billion (18 billion pounds) in 2009, possibly as much as $140 billion, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

    The IMF said it had identified 26 countries, many of them oil exporters, that are particularly vulnerable to the global downturn and collapse in commodity prices.

    "There is a risk that the impact on low-income countries could be more serious," the IMF warned in a new report that looks at the effects of the spreading crisis on poor states.

    It urged the international community, including donor nations, to step up their assistance. At the same time, the IMF said it was concerned that aid could dive by as much as 30 percent this year relative their 2008 value, as recession in advanced countries cuts into aid budgets.

    (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)