The developing world achieved a far more substantial package at the G20 summit in London than had been expected beforehand, writes BBC online Thursday.
Of the 250 billion US dollar in “Special Drawing Rights” – essentially short-term debt – 19 billion of that is earmarked for the poorest, least developing countries.
The sale of International Monetary Fund (IMF) gold will also make credit available many times in excess of the capital sum itself, once it goes through the system.
The measure that could make the most difference in the short term for the poorest countries is availability of 250 billion dollar of trade credit.
That figure too is larger than was anticipated before the summit. It will enable goods currently rotting on the quayside in Africa to move again. That was the change that the poorest countries were pushing most.
The presence of Ethiopia, representing Africa, and Thailand, representing South East Asia, at the top table alongside more sizeable emerging economies like India, China and Brazil changes the way the world does business. Unlike the G8, the wider tent of the G20 ensured that bigger issues were discussed.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that the key financial institutions, the IMF and the World Bank, will be led in future on merit, rather than the top jobs being held always by Europe and the World Bank.
But the summit may not prevent the creeping protectionism that the developing world fears will lock them out of trading their way out of the crisis. The summit agreed that the Doha round of world trade talks should begin again. It aims to liberate trade rules, but has been stalled since last August, BBC adds.
