BBC新闻100篇 News Item 6

The International Monetary Fund

has told governments across the world

that further action is needed

to help return the global financial system to stability.

In a fresh estimate of the scale of the problem,

the IMF says global losses on toxic assets

could total four trillion dollars. Andrew Walker reports.

This report does identify

what it calls some early signs of stabilization in financial systems,

but there are not many of them.

And the IMF says further action will be needed

if they're to be sustained.

In two key areas, it says that progress by governments

has been piecemeal and reactive,

dealing with the problem assets held by financial institutions

and how to handle banks that need extra capital.

For that problem the report says

temporary government ownership may sometime be necessary.