WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund is revising its loan programs to make them better suited to members facing financial difficulties, but no decision has been made on what form any emergency loan program would take, IMF sources said Friday.Among ideas under discussion is to provide a credit line in hard currency to countries that otherwise would have no access to foreign capital, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because discussions among IMF member nations including the United States have produced nothing definite. The IMF's 24-member executive board is expected to meet next week to examine the various proposals under consideration. The immediate beneficiaries would be developing countries with good economic records such as Turkey, Brazil, and South Korea who normally have no difficulty borrowing but have seen access to money dry up as Western banks stopped lending amid a credit crisis.Another idea under consideration is to allow member countries to borrow against the amount they have contributed to the fund, known as a quota. For example, if South Korea borrowed against its quota it could obtain almost $22 billion. The IMF already is discussing loan packages with close to a dozen countries and is examining ways to speed up the process in line with instructions it received this month from its policymaking committee. IMF loans often have a knock-on effect by generating other financing from private and public sources such as the multilateral development banks. The loans also come with stringent conditions that involve budget cutting and other belt-tightening measures that some governments have said should be eased in the current crisis.
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