Weather Tonight: 8°c Light showers Morning: 13°c Light showers

Business

HEADLINES:

IMF consortium 'to wrap up £3.8bn rescue deal for Iceland'

Bill Condie
07.11.08

Iceland is to get its $6 billion rescue package from an International Monetary Fund-led consortium, according to Poland, one of the contributors.

The group includes the UK, Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, Poland as well as the Faroe Islands.

The UK has already come up with £800 million to compensate British savers who lost everything when Icelandic bank Icesave failed.

The IMF executive board has postponed until Monday a meeting to sign off on its $2.1 billion contribution in the form of a loan to Iceland. But Poland says the deal has effectively been approved.

The global financial crisis has led to the collapse of three of Iceland's top banks, with government support for them alone to cost as much as 1.1 trillion Iceland crowns (£5.4 billion).

The collapses have led to chaos in Iceland, where the central bank has interest rates at 18% and warns that inflation could soar to 20% next year.

Iceland's economy is set to shrink 8.3% next year, from July's estimate of only a 2% contraction.

The country's three main banks, Kaupthing, Landsbanki Islands and Glitnir Bank have total debt worth $61 billion, equivalent to about 12 times the country's GDP. About 230,000 British depositors with Landsbanki's Icesave will receive compensation to replace all of their lost savings.

The IMF yesterday approved a 17-month standby loan of $15.7 billion for Hungary, a country hard hit by the financial crisis. That comes on top of a $16.4 billion loan to Ukraine.

The fund has released $6.3 billion to Hungary immediately, which says it will start injecting the money into its banking system.

"Hungary was hard hit by the global deleveraging," the IMF said, adding that it was "among the first emerging market countries to suffer from the fallout of the current global financial crisis" because of its very high levels of debt.

Reader views (0)

 Add your view

No comments have so far been submitted.


Add your comment

 

Your email address will not be published

Terms and conditions make text area bigger You have  characters left.


 
Market Roundup
FRIDAY UPDATE

Morgan Stanley casts cloud over Thomas Cook and Tui

Shares of the UK’s two biggest package holiday operators were among the heaviest blue-chip fallers today after one broker decided that their outlook was far from sunny

More



City Spy, cityspy@standard.co.uk

Mayday! Who will leave BA board?

“The board of British Airways, with fees of £50,000 a year for a part-time director attending seven meetings and all those unlimited first class flights for them and the family, has been one of the most eye-catching City gravy trains. But that train is about to get a lot shorter

More

CitiDirect.co.uk - Directory Enquiry Service for UK Businesses

CitiDirect.co.uk - Directory Enquiry Service for UK Businesses
Service Area or postcode