Norway offers a bilateral loan to the IMF

Finance Minister Sigbjørn Johnsen today sent a letter to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), offering to extend a bilateral loan of up to 6 billion SDR. The offer is conditional on parliamentary consent. With today’s exchange rates, the amount is equivalent to around 55 billion kroner, or 7 billion euros. This will double Norway’s total lending commitments to the IMF.

- Norway has a strong interest in securing international economic and financial stability. We also have significant international reserves. We are therefore pleased to take part in an international effort to boost the IMF’s lending capacity, says Finance Minister Sigbjørn Johnsen.

- Unemployment is high in many countries, in particular among youth. It is therefore necessary to create room for growth to boost employment. This is in line with the message from the joint IMF-ILO conference which we hosted in Oslo in the fall of 2010, says Johnsen.

The Norwegian bilateral loan will be extended to the IMF’s general resource account. The funds will therefore be available for all member countries of the IMF, and not earmarked any particular region or group of countries.

Read more:
Press release from the Office of the Prime Minister
Letter from finance minister Johnsen to managing director of IMF