IMF
Dodges Greek 6
Day Week &
Hungary
Unfriending,
Ignores
Rwanda, Sudan
Reply
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
WASHINGTON
DC,
September 13,
updated 11 am
-- As IMF
Managing
Director
Christine
Lagarde
prepares on
Friday to
visit Cyprus,
on Thursday
morning the
IMF
ignored two --
all? --
questions
about sub
Saharan
Africa,
including
one Inner City
Press
submitted
about the
Sudans and
re-submitted
about Rwanda.
[See below on
Sudan.]
It
again called
into question
Lagarde's
statement
about children
in
Niger versus
the protesting
Greeks. What
ABOUT Niger?
The
closest the
IMF's biweekly
briefing got
was Egypt, on
which
spokesman
Gerry Rice
used buzzwords
like
“homegrown
program” about
this it
is “premature
to discuss
conditions.”
On
Hungary as
well, Rice
wouldn't
comment on the
IMF being
un-friended
on Facebook.
He selected
questions on
Argentina and
the Dominican
Republic, and
answered
Xinhua
in-person
about
quantitative
easing.
The IMF's
position that
Basel III will
have little
negative
impact
was not asked
about.
Two
weeks ago, the
IMF's media
briefing
center did not
work for
journalists
not in DC.
This time,
Inner City
Press
submitted its
questions,
including on
Belarus,
through the
online form on
the media
center, as
well as by
e-mail. But by
embargo
deadline, no
substantive
answers.
Most
of the
questions
taken
concerned
Greece. Will
there be a
third
program? Rice
said said the
IMF's goal is
to get the
current
program
on track. What
about a six
day work week?
Watch this
site.
Update
of 11 am -- at
10:54 am,
after
deadline, the
IMF provided
an answer on
Sudan,
including that
"The
Fund welcomes
the
preliminary
agreement on
oil-related
issues and
looks forward
for its
finalization
and to the
resolution of
the other
pending
bilateral
issues. The
Fund stands
ready to
intensify its
engagement
through
technical and
policy advice
[but] Sudan
remains in
arrears to the
Fund and hence
is ineligible
to use Fund
resources."
Watch this
site.
, 
