Washington  - The International Monetary Fund on Monday approved a 7.6-billion-dollar loan for Pakistan designed to help it stabilize its economy and expand its social safety net.

"By providing large financial support to Pakistan, the IMF is sending a strong signal to the donor community about the country's improved macroeconomic prospects," IMF Deputy Managing Director Takatoshi Kato said in a statement.

Singapore  - Singaporean President SR Nathan and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will take a 19 per cent salary cut next year, leading a civil-service-wide downward salary adjustment to offset the impact of the global financial crisis, local media reports said Tuesday.

The president and prime minister would earn 3.14 million Singapore dollars (2.07 million US dollars ) and 3.04 million Singapore dollars (2 million US dollars) with the cuts in
2009.

Budapest  - The Hungarian central bank lowered its base rate from 11.5 per cent to 11 per cent in a surprise move Monday.

The bank also issued its latest quarterly inflation report Monday, which warned that Hungary was set to enter a recession next year.

The Hungarian National Bank (MNB), which had in August predicted a 2.6-per-cent growth in GDP in 2009, said that it now expected the economy to shrink by 1.7 per cent to
2 per cent.

The central bank forecast a relatively brief recession, but warned that recovery would be very slow because of the widening economic crisis in countries that form Hungary's main export markets.

Riga  - Latvia could be in line to get around 2.5 billion dollars from the coffers of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union (EU) according to an economic expert on the Baltic states.

Over the weekend, the IMF confirmed that the Latvian authorities had asked it to provide "technical and financial support" and that it stood "ready to rapidly assist their efforts in the context of a comprehensive economic program."

Neil Shearing of London-based Capital Economics predicted Monday that Latvia's aid package would likely be "much smaller" than the 25 billion-dollar package given to Hungary.

Washington  - President-elect Barack Obama Monday unveiled the economic team that will attempt to steer the United States away from a protracted recession, naming Timothy Geithner to head the US Treasury and Larry Summers as his top White House economic advisor.

Geithner, currently the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will be tasked with rescuing the financial industry from its worst crisis since the Great Depression when the new administration takes over on January 20.

Geithner, 47, has already worked closely with current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke since the financial crisis spiralled out of control in September.

Washington  - President-elect Barack Obama unveiled the leaders of his economic policy on Monday, naming Timothy Geithner to head the US Treasury and Larry Summers as his top White House economic advisor.

Geithner, currently the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will be rescuing the financial industry from its worst crisis since the Great Depression. He has already worked closely with current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke since the financial crisis spiralled out of control in September.

"We are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions," Obama said in a Chicago press conference that marked the first cabinet positions officially unveiled since his election November 4.