The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved another installment of loans to Iceland and expressed confidence Friday that the troubled island's economy will recover this year from its devastating financial crisis, dpa reported. The IMF's Executive Board approved the 160-million-dollar loan after staff visited the country earlier this year to review its economic policies. Iceland has now received 1.2 billion dollars from the IMF in total. The loan is part of a 2.1-billion-dollar deal agreed upon soon after the collapse of the North Atlantic nation's main banking groups Glitnir, Kaupthing and Landsbanki in the autumn of 2008. The crisis has taken a heavy toll on Iceland and its citizens, but I am confident that the policies and financing now in place will ... help Iceland's economy stage a recovery in the second half of 2010," IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in a statement. The IMF will continue to support Iceland's efforts to address this crisis in any way it can," Strauss-Kahn said.
