PETITION: IMF must drop debts with gold windfall
The International Monetary Fund has almost $3 billion spare after selling gold at a high price and making a ‘profit’ from the financial crisis it helped to create.
Meanwhile, developing countries are still seeing debts increase due to disasters and global economic crisis.
The IMF Board is deciding what to do with a $3 billion windfall.
IMF: back from the dead
In 2007 the IMF was in financial crisis. Income from the interest charged on the money it lends had dried-up. During the 2000s, countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Thailand paid off their debts, scarred by the free market economic conditions forced upon them in previous years.
The governments which run the international institution decided to sell 400 tonnes of its gold, and invest the proceeds to get a new income. The gold has just finished being sold, and with prices reaching record highs, the IMF has a windfall of almost $3 billion.
Impact of the crisis
Meanwhile, the financial crisis has led to a boom in IMF lending, resulting in a bumper expected ‘profit’ of $500 million this year alone. Despite cheerleading financial deregulation, the IMF is doing well out of the economic crisis it helped to create.
In recent years disasters and the economic crisis have forced many poor countries into debt through no fault of their own. Sierra Leone’s debt to the rest of the world has doubled. In 2011, more of the government’s revenue will be spent on debt repayments than is spent on healthcare.
The governments which run the IMF are discussing how to use the IMF’s windfall. Jubilee Debt Campaign has joined with over fifty other organisations and networks to call for the IMF to cancel the debts of poor countries which are the result of crises outside the country’s control.
Sign the petition!
Take action now by signing the international petition which has already received nearly 15,000 signatures of support:
"We call on the IMF Board to direct the Fund’s $2.8 billion in excess windfall profits from gold sales to debt cancellation for poor countries in crisis."