WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said the International Monetary Fund and World Bank should ease spending limits imposed on sub-Saharan African countries that receive loans from the lenders.Countries in the region achieving economic growth rates of between 4 percent and 5 percent should be allowed to increase spending on infrastructure in order to reduce poverty, Manuel told the World Bank’s Development Committee today, according to a copy of his statement distributed in Washington. “There is a consensus emerging in Sub-Saharan Africa that more fiscal space is urgently needed to scale up public sector investments,” Manuel said. If IMF and World Bank lending programs “are to be bold and ambitious, it is clear that the overly restrictive macroeconomic policy frameworks would need to be reassessed.”

The IMF requires countries that receive loans under its Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility to trim budget deficits, reduce inflation and boost economic growth. Sub-Saharan African countries are pushing to increase infrastructure investments in areas such as roads, power and housing, to meet targets set by the United Nations to halve poverty by 2015.