An IMF spokesperson said today the board would be asked to approve $450 million in emergency assistance for this month to cope with the flooding in Pakistan.
“The floods in Pakistan are first and foremost a human tragedy still affecting millions of people. But this natural disaster will also have an important effect on the country’s economy as it has caused serious damage to infrastructure, severely impacted economic outlook and resulted in a worsening of the fiscal situation,”" IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.”
The money will be provided by the Emergency Natural Disaster Assistance (ENDA) fund. This emergency assistance will be in addition to the $7.3 billion USD provided by the current stand by arrangement that’s been in place since November 2008.
Relief aid to Pakistan has been slow in coming. After the flooding, world aid to the country was very slow getting started. It wasn’t till UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visted the stricken country in mid August that funding picked up. As early as last week though the UN had said that aid had “almost stalled” again.
It’s reported that thousands still remain trapped by the flood waters in the province of Sindh, while others have gone without food or water for days and are still living in their destroyed homes.
Tags: emergency relief, floods, imf, imf fund, natural disaster, pakistan, pakistan floods
