Christine Lagarde welcomes India's commitment to contribute to IMF

WASHINGTON: International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde has welcomed the indications by countries like India and Brazil to contribute to its resources.

In a statement, Lagarde thanked all the countries that have already announced specific contributions, besides China and Russia, which have given firm and specific commitments.

"I am also grateful to Brazil, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, all of whom have indicated that they will be among the contributors, which will raise the total further," Lagarde said.

"We warmly welcome pledges by our members to increase IMF resources by over $430 billion, almost doubling our lending capacity," she added.

This signals the strong resolve of the international community to secure global financial stability and put the world economic recovery on a sounder footing, the IMF chief said.

The resources will be drawn only if they are needed, and if drawn, will be refunded with interest, she noted.

European Union has contributed the most with about $200 billion, followed by Japan ($60 billion), S Korea, Saudi Arabia and Britain ($15 billion each), and Sweden at least $10 billion.