Philippines to contribute $500M to IMF facility

The Philippines has pledged to contribute $500 million to the International Monetary Fund’s latest lending facility aimed at addressing crises such as volatility in the eurozone.

Diwa Guinigundo, deputy governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, said that the entry of the Philippines into the expanded New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB) program of the IMF as a creditor country is currently being processed by the IMF.

Should the entry be finalized, the Philippines will make available $500 million, which the IMF can tap in its efforts to provide financial assistance to crisis-stricken countries, such as those in the eurozone.

The IMF puts up lending facilities such as the NAB to ensure there are sufficient resources that can be tapped in case of significant threats to global monetary stability.

The NAB has $579 billion worth of total pledges from various creditor countries, including the $500 million from the Philippines.

The pledge from the Philippines to the NAB program of the IMF is on top of the country’s contribution of $251.5-million to the Financial Transactions Plan (FTP), another lending facility of the IMF.

Of the Philippines’ contribution to the FTP, over half were actually used by the IMF as part of the overall financial assistance recently extended to debt-ridden Ireland, Portugal and Greece.

The Philippines used to be a net borrower from the IMF until 2006, when the country prepaid all its outstanding obligations to the multilateral institution.

By 2010, the Philippines became a net creditor to the IMF when it participated in the FTP.