On
Ghana, IMF
Tells ICP
Visit Ongoing,
1/2 Answer on
Ukraine, Ebola
Tomorrow
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 25
-- With Ghana
hosting an
International
Monetary
Fund visit,
Inner City
Press asked
IMF
Spokesperson
Gerry Rice at
his
embargoed
briefing on
September 25
about what
Ghana’s
President
John Mahama
said this week
at the New
York Stock
Exchange: "It
is my hope
that by
January we
should start a
three-year IMF
programme
to try and
stabilise the
macroeconomic
environment.”
Rice
took the
question from
Inner City
Press and said
yes, an IMF
team is
in Accra
discussing a
program, and
will have
something to
say once
the visit
concludes.
Inner
City Press
also submitted
this question:
“Ukraine PM
Yatseniuk
yesterday
said, 'We do
understand
that we have
to readjust
the
program.
Because when
we started the
program with
the IMF, it
was a
peace program.
For today,
this is a
wartime
government and
a wartime
program.' What
is the IMF's
response to /
comment on
this?”
While
Rice said that
there was no
request for
any
“readjustment”
yet,
that the IMF
will combine
two reviews in
November with
an eye toward
its Executive
Board meeting
on Ukraine at
the end of the
year or
early 2015. He
said the
purpose of
such reviews,
generally, is
readjustment.
But
Rice did in
this answer
address the
appropriateness
of IMF lending
into what
Yatseniuk called
“a wartime
government and
a wartime
program"
speaking at
the Council on
Foreign Relations
in New York.
We'll have
more on this.
The
IMF's
Executive
Board will
meet on
September 26
about Ebola,
on which
Rice answered
Inner City
Press'
questions four
weeks ago.
Rice said
indeed, the
IMF is
discussing an
“Article IV”
with Egypt,
and
hopes it will
be before the
end of the
year. The
IMF's head of
communications
Conny Lotze is
heading to the
European Central
Bank in
Frankfurt. And
so it goes at
the IMF.
, 
