G20: A citizen’s guide

What was decided about the International Monetary Fund (IMF)?

The IMF is to receive an extra £500bn in funding, up from its current £250bn budget. This is to be lent to poor countries that are among the worst hit by the financial meltdown. G20 leaders also agreed to a $250bn Special Drawing Rights package, which is essentially cash that can be pumped into the world's economy. There was also a broad agreement to reform the IMF as well as the World Bank, though this was light on specifics.

Will the action on the IMF work?

Central and Eastern European nations will certainly hope so. Ukraine, Hungary and Latvia have already gone begging to the IMF for financial aid. Poorer countries should feel reassured by the scale of the funds now available to the IMF. However, some of the promises had actually been made before, such as the commitments from the European Union and Japan to put $100bn each into the IMF, making the huge figures somewhat deceptive. More