On Tuesday, local Brazilian financial newspaper Valor Economico said the Brazilian government promised to offer roughly $10 billion to help support an aid package for Europe though the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The offer was said to have been made during the G20 summit which took place last week in France. The $10 billion would come from Brazil’s more than $350 billion in foreign reserves.
Carlos Cozendey, secretary for foreign affairs at the Brazilian Finance Ministry, told the newspaper “[Timing of the support] depends on European signs on when they are prepared to accept it.”
Last week Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said publicly that Brazil was prepared to help Europe via the IMF. She did say, however, that more details of the aid package needed to be worked out and that such details should be available in December.
She also said last week that the other BRIC countries — China, India and Russia — were in general agreement about the need to offer support to Europe through the IMF.
These countries are amenable to using the IMF as a conduit because the resources committed would be “guaranteed” by the IMF.