Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, on Thursday said the IMF had launched a new Resilience and Sustainability Trust to support vulnerable countries meet their long-term challenges.

“I am delighted to announce that the new Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) has become operational.

“Today, I notified the Executive Board that with our fundraising to date, the RST is ready to start lending operations.’’

Ms Georgieva in a statement explained that the RST was the first IMF tool to provide long-term affordable financing for supporting countries in such issues as climate change and pandemics and to help maintain longer-term economic and financial stability.

The director said Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, and Spain had provided a total of 20 billion dollars in their first contributions to the RST.

“This first round of RST resources represents just over half of the total current RST pledges of SDR 29 billion (US$ 37 billion) from 13 countries.

“Further contributions are expected to become effective in early 2023 once countries have completed their domestic procedures, ensuring the RST is in a strong position to meet the demand for RSF arrangements in the coming years,” Ms Georgieva said.

Additional countries are expected to join the initiative over time, Ms Georgieva added. 

(Sputnik/NAN)