HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Prime Minister Gordon Brown calls for world fund boost [October 2008]

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 28 October 2008.

Gordon Brown has called upon the international community to provide “substantial additional resources” to deal with the fallout from the current global financial crisis.

Speaking to journalists in Downing Street, the PM said that the International Monetary Fund’s standard arrangement to provide up to $250 billion may not be enough to ease the credit crunch and restore confidence to international markets.

Countries should be prepared to provide more support, particularly countries such as China and those in the Gulf that have built up significant resources in recent years, he said.

Mr Brown said he had discussed his proposal with the IMF, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whom he will meet for talks in Paris later today. The matter will also be raised on a tour of Gulf states this weekend and later with Premier Wen of China, he added.

The PM said:

“In the last few days I have discussed the risk of contagion and the need to stabilise economies right across Eastern Europe.

“It is clear that the whole of the international community must have an interest in stopping this contagion, to prevent the worsening of the global economic downturn. That is why it is vital that the international authorities – particularly the IMF – play a central role in supporting those economies at this time.

“It is in every nation’s interest and in the interests of hard-working families in our country and every country that financial contagion does not spread.”

The PM will also travel to the US in mid-November for a major international summit on the financial crisis to be hosted by President Bush.