Helping Hand: G8 raises Arab Spring financing pledge

MARSEILLE: Group of Eight finance chiefs pledged $38 billion on Saturday in financing to Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan over 2011-13, widening a deal agreed in May and offering Libya the chance to partake too. The IMF promised a further $35 billion in funding to countries affected by Arab Spring uprisings and formally recognised Libya’s ruling interim council as a legitimate power, opening up access to a myriad of international lenders as the country looks to rebuild after a six-month war. G8 chair France said the figure agreed at talks in the Mediterranean port of Marseille was roughly double a sum agreed in May, when the eight economic powers met in the northern French seaside town of Deauville. “The institutions pledged to increase their financial network to $38 billion compared with the $20 billion pledged at Deauville,” Baroin told a news conference.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2011.