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IMF Hands $567M to Tanzania After Answered Inner City Press on Bitcoin in El Salvador and Paraguay

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Video
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Sept 7 – When the International Monetary Fund held its biweekly embargoed press briefing on July 15, 2021  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 September 7 on Tanzania from the IMF, this: "September 7, 2021: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved a disbursement of SDR132.6 million (US$189.08 million) under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) and a purchase equivalent to SDR265.2 million (US$378.17 million) under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), a total of SDR397.8 million (US$567.25 million or 100 percent of quota). This emergency financing will help finance Tanzania’s urgent balance of payment needs stemming from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Tanzania’s economic outlook has deteriorated due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the collapse in tourism in the wake of travel restrictions, the economy reportedly decelerated to 4.8 percent growth in 2020, and growth is expected to remain subdued in 2021.... Following the Executive Board’s discussion, Mr. Bo Li, Deputy Managing Director and Chair, issued the following statement:  "The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted Tanzania’s macroeconomic outlook, and the health and wellbeing of its population. Growth decelerated in 2020 and is expected to remain subdued in 2021, increasing poverty and negatively affecting employment.."

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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