IMF, World Bank & IFI Round-Up

Brazil's central bank will loan more than USD 20 billion to companies having difficulty rolling over foreign debt, central bank President Henrique Meirelles said. The bank will tap its reserves for the loans, which will start this month and may eventually provide help to more than 4,000 companies, Meirelles said at a Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce event in New York, Bloomberg reported. The global credit crisis and a worldwide economic slump have constrained lending in Brazil and eroded consumer confidence, Meirelles said, adding that access to foreign credit hasn't been restored to pre-crisis levels. The central bank has already provided USD 10 billion in credit lines to exporters.