SDNY COURTHOUSE,
July 27 – When the
International Monetary Fund
held its biweekly embargoed
press briefing on July 15,
Inner City Press asked about
crypto-currency legislation in
Paraguay and again El
Salvador, about the
assassination in Haiti and
COVID-19 lack of transparency
in Cameroon.
Spokesperson Gerry Rice
responded on each. Short video
on Twitter here;
YouTube here.
Now on July 27 from the IMF on Burundi
- whose sending of "peacekeeping" troops to
CAR is said to be stalled by human rights
violations, though the UN won't answer - this:
"A team from the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) led by Ms. Mame Astou Diouf, Mission
Chief for Burundi conducted a virtual mission
during June 23–July 26, 2021 to hold
discussions on a request for financial
assistance under the IMF’s Rapid Credit
Facility (RCF). At the end of the
mission, Ms. Mame Astou Diouf issued the
following statement: “The Burundian
authorities and the IMF have reached a
staff-level agreement on economic and
structural policies that could be supported by
a disbursement of SDR 53.9 million (about US$
78 million) under the RCF to address the
economic and social impacts of the COVID-19
pandemic. The staff level agreement is subject
to IMF management approval and Executive Board
consideration, planned for September
2021. “The Burundian economy was
moderately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Staff estimate that real GDP contracted by
about one percent in 2020."
On July 15 Inner
City Press asked, "On Paraguay
and crypto-currency, what is
the IMF's response to the July
14 announcement of the
"Bitcoin Bill" there? And, if
any updates on El Salvador."
For the IMF, Rice
said he did not have any
comparator on Paraguay - yet?
- and he said that discussions
with El Salvador about a
program continue. He
emphasized that El Salvador
has clarified that "holding
Bitcoin is optional."
Inner City Press
on Cameroon asked, among other
things, if there was any meat
on the bones of calls for
transparency, giving the
missing COVID-19 money. Rice
said the IMF had met with the
women leaders who wrote to it,
and that a third RCF facility
will be considered by the IMF
Board in the coming weeks.
Watch this site.
On Haiti,
after Inner City Press asked
about the assassination and
where things stand, Rice for
the IMF condemned the attack
and said that the form of
future support cannot be
described but that the IMF
looks forward to working with
the incoming government.
Watch this site.
Back on January 8
Inner City Press asked the
IMF's Helge Berger, Mission
Chief, about China's so-called
Belt and Road Initiative:
"Your Article IV report cites
China's "overseas lending
projects" amid "rising
geopolitical tensions and
economic and trade frictions."
How does the IMF think that
rising debt levels among
African countries, and
increased skepticism about the
"Belt and Road" will impact or
be addressed going forward?
-Matthew Russell Lee, Inner
City Press. Video here.
(An aside: Inner
City Press has
reported on
the CEFC China
Energy Fund
Committee's
activities in
Chad and
Uganda and in
the UN, on
which the UN is
UNresponsive.)
Other questions
included
China's digital
currency (Inner
City Press also reports
on
crypto-currency
cases in the
U.S. District
Court for the
Southern
District of
New York and
elsewhere).
Berger said
when used
overseas an
issue is that
residents
could start
using another
country's
currency, if
it is easier.
We'll have more
on this.
***
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