The Arab Monetary Fund is unlikely to offer any funding assistance to the Euro zone, because it needs to provide loans to unrest-hit countries across the Arab world, according to Director General Jassim al-Mannai. The 22-member AMF has already provided loans worth around $548 million to Jordan, Morocco and Yemen in 2010. This amounts mark the highest level of annual lending in the last 22 years, AMF’s annual report shows.
On the sidelines of a meeting of regional bankers in Abu Dhabi, he told reporters that the Arab Spring needs are priority for the region.
Lat Friday, the European Union leaders agreed at a summit in Brussels that euro zone states and other nations should provide up to 200 billion euros ($270 billion) in bilateral loans to the International Monetary Fund to help it tackle the zone’s debt crisis. They envisaged 50 billion euros of the total coming from non-euro countries, but it is not yet clearified which nations would be willing to provide the money.
The total value of loans extended by the AMF reached $6.1 billion at the end of 2010, while total assets stood at 3.1 billion Arab Accounting Dinars, or $14.5 billion.
