IMF list of needy countries growing

TEXT OF STORY

Bill Radke: The International Monetary Fund has been busy rescuing many countries from the credit crisis. So far, Ukraine and Iceland have received billions. Now Hungary is the first European Union country to get an IMF bailout. And as Megan Williams reports, it likely will not be the last.

Megan Williams: Hungarians had been borrowing abroad. Then the credit crisis hit, its currency dropped and now the loans are nearly impossible to pay back.

The IMF hopes $25 billion will help the country cope. Most of it comes from the monetary fund; the rest from the E.U. and World Bank. In exchange, Hungary will have to cut spending and depend less on foreign financing. The country’s already talking wage freezes and reduced pensions.

One analyst told me, though, the bigger issue is all the other countries who’ll soon be needing IMF help. In the last week alone, it’s shelled out 15 percent of what it has. Other European countries, Pakistan, Argentina and Venezuela may also soon need help. So the billion dollar question is, will the IMF have enough?

I’m Megan Williams for Marketplace.