MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

IMF calls for more aid for poor countries.

The annual International Monetary Fund and World Bank assembly ended this Sunday in Washington calling for an increase in help for developing countries and to take advantage of the current global economy growth to apply much needed reforms.

In his closing speech Managing Director of the IMF Rodrigo Rato insisted that countries musts take advantage of the world's economic recovery to adopt measures that can help consolidate growth.

Among those measures he mentioned the collaboration in combating misbalances in current accounts balances as well as promoting fiscal consolidation.

Mr. Rato also mentioned one of the issues which have dominated the annual assembly that is expanding aid to the world's poorest countries and described as positive the international consensus to increase that aid and condone multilateral debt.

Regarding different proposals considered during the assembly such as that sponsored by the United Nations, France, Brazil, Chile and Spain to tax international financial transactions with the purpose of helping world development, Mr. Rato described them as "technically solid" but also considered necessary a political understanding before they can be enforced.

World Bank president James Wolfensohn also underlined the strong international consensus to help the poorest countries in the world.

Mr. Wolfensohn also called on country members to give new life to the current free trade Doha round which the IMF considers essential for continued world expansion.

However the encouraging news about the overall world economy performance were shadowed by the ever rising cost of oil which has been described by IMF as a serious risk for sustained economic expansion.