US Senate keeps IMF financing in war funding bill

The US Senate on Thursday voted to preserve $108 billion dollars in financing for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help it deal with the global economic crisis, as part of a war funding bill.Senators rejected on a 64-30 vote an amendment proposed by Republican Senator Jim DeMint to strip the IMF funding from a supplemental 91.3 billion dollar defense bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

The final vote on the defense bill, which provides additional spending for the current 2009 fiscal year that ends on September 30, was expected later Thursday.

The legislation’s provisions for the IMF include 100 billion dollars for the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB), a credit instrument providing the multilateral institution with additional resources to deal with exceptional risks to the stability of the international monetary system.