Brazil could experience a flight of capital should the European sovereign-debt crisis worsen, and the country may use interest rates and US dollar reserves to combat contagion, an International Monetary Fund director said.
Proposals to double the size of the IMF as part of a broader international response to Europe's debt crisis immediately ran into resistance from the United States and others, burying the idea for now and firmly putting the onus back on Europe.
China has the scope to respond if global economic risks materialize, and the country's response could partially but not entirely offset the impact of a global crisis, the International Monetary Fund's Asia and Pacific director said on Thursday.
Members of the Paris Club group of creditors want Argentina to repay an estimated 9 billion dollars in defaulted debt within three years and to make a big initial payment, Buenos Aires newspaper La Nacion reported over the weekend.
European banks may need more than 100 billion Euros to withstand the sovereign debt crisis, Ireland estimated, ahead of a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to work out how to recapitalise the lenders.
Latin American policy makers must be prepared to use interest rate cuts and consider fiscal measures to protect their economies in the event that the global economy stalls, the International Monetary Fund said.
The International Monetary Fund could buy Spanish or Italian bonds alongside the Euro zone bailout fund if needed, to help boost investor confidence in those countries, the IMF Europe head Antonio Borges said on Wednesday.
Greece’s striking public sector workers blockaded the entrance to several ministries in Athens on the second anniversary of the ruling Socialist party's election victory, disrupting talks with EU and IMF inspectors on the next aid tranche.
Argentine Economy Minister Amado Boudou urged countries in the region to “seize the opportunity created as a result of the crisis affecting developed nations and implement their own solutions.”
Nicolas Eyzaguirre, the IMF director for Latin America, stated that Argentina must apply “major measures” to improve its method of measuring the inflation.