The International Monetary Fund gets the bulk of its loan money from its member countries. It operates essentially like a global credit union — member countries pay into the IMF when they join, and the IMF taps those resources supplied by the 186 countries when it needs to provide loans to a country facing economic difficulties.
When a country joins the IMF it is assessed a "quota" that is broadly based on its relative size in the world economy. A country normally pays one-fourth of that quota in the form of a widely accepted foreign currency such as the U.S. dollar, the Japanese yen or the British pound. The remaining three-quarters of its quota can be paid in the country's own currency.
It is primarily from these quotas that the IMF gets the resources to make loans to countries in trouble, although it can also tap other resources, such as special borrowing arrangements it maintains with wealthy nations, including the United States.
The U.S., as the world's largest economy, is the biggest contributor to the IMF with a quota of 17.09 percent. That support totals around $54.8 billion at the current exchange rate for the dollar. That is the size of the contribution the United States has made to the IMF that the agency can draw upon to support its various loan programs.
The second-largest contribution comes from Japan, the world's second largest economy, with a quota of 6.12 percent.
The quota percentage roughly represents the size of the contribution the U.S. makes to various IMF programs, including the IMF's emergency loans such as the one to Greece.
The IMF's three-year loan to Greece totals 30 billion euros, roughly $39 billion. It is part of a total support package for Greece of 110 billion euros or about $145 billion. The biggest part of the support is being provided by the 15 other nations that, along with Greece, share the euro currency.
Marty Crutsinger
AP Economics Writer
Washington
Mégsem árt néha oszlatni a minden bankár neoliberális bolsevik zsidó mítoszt.
