The International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) mainly letter of credit (L/C) based Global Trade Finance Programme (GTFP) has reached a new milestone.

In March 2008, the IFC said the programme had provided up of US$2 billion worth of guarantees, all issued since its launch in September 2005.

Progress

At the end of 2007, the US dollar amount of guarantees IFC had issued under the programme was just US$1.15 billion, representing 787 guarantees and covering 1,500 underlying transactions.

Half of the guarantees supported trade with banks in Sub-Saharan Africa, and a third comprised trade between emerging markets, or "South-South" trade.

Access to finance

By March 2008, the IFC said that a total of 2,500 individual trades had been covered under the scheme.

The continued growth of the programme is boosting access to trade finance for entrepreneurs and small- and medium-sized enterprises in some of the world's most challenging markets according to GTFP's promoters.

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