LEAD: IMF wants to raise lending funds by 500 billion dollars

Jan 18, 2012, 16:41 GMT

Washington - The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday it hopes to raise its lending capacity by 500 billion dollars, as it works to combat the debt crisis in the eurozone.

'Based on staff's estimate of global potential financing needs of about 1 trillion dollars in the coming years, the Fund would aim to raise up to 500 billion dollars in additional lending resources,' an IMF spokesman said in Washington.

The fund is examining means to raise the additional money and would not provide further details before it completed consultations with its member countries.

The IMF currently has 385 billion dollars in lending capacity.

The IMF's board of directors met Tuesday to discuss the issue.

'The biggest challenge is to respond to the crisis in an adequate manner and many executive directors stressed the necessity and urgency of collective efforts to contain the debt crisis in the euro area and protect economies around the world from spillovers and excessive output/income contractions,' Managing Director Christine Lagarde said after the meeting.

Though the fund did not make details of its discussions public, Bloomberg financial news service quoted an unnamed Group of 20 official as saying it hopes to encourage China, Brazil, Russia, India, Japan and oil-exporting nations to boost their contributions. The matter will likely be discussed at a G20 finance ministers meeting in Mexico next month.

G20 leaders had not been receptive to boosting funds for the IMF when they met in France late last year, and the US has been firm in its objection to further contributions.