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The Financial Times on Monday reported that the IMF has US$142 billion in quickly available resources but they are being rapidly depleted. Ken Rogoff, a professor at Harvard University who was a former chief economist at the IMF, said, "The IMF doesn't have nearly the resources to backstop all of Eastern Europe."

The newspaper wrote, "The IMF... recently finalised an agreement to borrow an extra $100 billion from Japan. It is seeking a further $150 billion from other member governments." At the European summit held last week, leaders of the Europe called for doubling the IMF fund resources from $250 billion to $500 billion. But their discussion ended up as a superficial debate. This issue is expected to be handled once again at the upcoming G20 summit to be held in London in April.

(englishnews@chosun.com )