Hungary: Just the First to Fall?

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced Oct. 29 that it will join with the European Union and the World Bank to give Hungary a 20 billion euro ($US25.5 billion) loan. The size of the loan — and the coordination among the IMF, the European Union and the World Bank — shows just how hard the global financial crisis has hit Hungary and how much fear there is that the financial contagion could spread from Hungary to the rest of emerging Europe.