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IMF loans dangerous for Iceland, Pakistan, Ukraine: Stiglitz

Business Materials 28 January 2009 17:44 (UTC +04:00)
IMF loans dangerous for Iceland, Pakistan, Ukraine: Stiglitz

Ukraine, Kiev, Jan. 28 / Trend , Z.Novosvitskiy/

Former World Bank Chief Economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz warned that the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) loans will ruin the economies it is trying to help - Iceland, Pakistan and Ukraine, the Deutsche Welle newspaper said.

IMF made several mistakes since the Asian financial crisis in 1997. Now it is stepping on the same rake, he said.

Stiglitz said the interest rates on the IMF loans were too high.

"These funds will weaken their economies and ultimately they will be difficult to pay off," he added.

On Nov. 5, the IMF approved a $16.43-billion loan to Ukraine to build confidence in the financial sector and aid the economy, which has suffered tremendously in the global economic crisis.

The loan program will run two years. In November 2008, Kiev received the first tranche of the loan amounting to $4.5 billion.

Josef Eugene Stiglitz is an U.S. economist and professor at Columbia University . He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences ( 2001 ).

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