IMF’s Lagarde Seeks Latin America Help for Europe in ‘Historic About-Turn’

Via Bloomberg.com: International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde will seek support from Latin America’s largest economies this week to help contain Europe’s mounting debt crisis. The visit that kicks off in Peru today, her first to Latin America since taking office in July, marks a role reversal for a region that harbors deep-seated resentment over decades of IMF- imposed austerity measures, said Roberto Abdenur, a former Brazilian ambassador to the U.S. “Previously local authorities trembled when even the most junior IMF official visited,” Abdenur said in a telephone interview. “Today, the chief is coming to seek aid. It’s an historic about-turn.” Struggling with repeated crises until just over a decade ago, Latin America today helps drive global growth with expansion forecast at 4.5 percent this year, compared with 1.6 percent for developed nations, according to the IMF. Lagarde wants to tap the new-found wealth of Brazil and Mexico to beef up the fund’s resources to contain the debt crisis, while placating their demands for a larger say at the institution.