| On Papua New Guinea Inner
City Press at IMF Asks If New Res Rep Office
Means Dysfunction
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Substack
IMF, April 4 –
With some in Papua New Guinea
saying the IMF's new permanent
office and officer in Port
Morseby reflects economic
disfunction and undermines
sovereignty, Inner City Press
at the International Monetary
Fund on April 4 asked
Spokesperson Julie Kozack
about the Paris Club extension
and the upcoming IMF and World
Bank Spring meetings
Transcript
on Papua New Guinea:
Matthew Russell
Lee, Inner City Press:
"smaller [than Ethiopia, Sri
Lanka and Bitcoin] but spicy -
in Papua New Guinea, the
opposition is saying that the
opening of a permanent office
and the ascending of a
resident representative is
either shows dysfunction or is
a challenge to
sovereignty. And I just
wanted to know what is the
IMF's thinking in assigning a
resident representative there
MS. KOZACK:
"On Papua New Guinea, I think
what I can say with respect to
the opening of a Resident
Representative Office is that
we do have a program.
The IMF does have a program
with Papua New Guinea.
It is standard practice for
the IMF to have a Resident
Representative Office in cases
where we have a program with
the country. In this
case, the time difference
between Washington and Papua
New Guinea of 14 hours makes
having an office and personnel
on the ground, I would say,
even more important. And
what do those representatives,
our Resident Representatives,
do on the ground? Of
course, they help support the
team in monitoring the
program. They engage
very closely with the
authorities to help ensure
that communication and
information flows well.
But they also -- the Resident
Representatives -- also engage
very much with the local
community because, of course,
ultimately, building strong
social support for reforms
under an IMF program is, of
course, important."
Back on
March 7, a year after the
failure of Silicon Valley Bank
and Signature Bank, the
International Monetary Fund
has warned of more trouble,
just as NYCB teeters. Inner
City Press on March 7 asked
the IMF about it, video here.
The IMF had
said, "the high concentration
of CRE [commercial real
estate] exposures represents a
serious risk to small and
large banks amid economic
uncertainty and higher
interest rates, potentially
declining property values, and
asset quality deterioration.”
Small banks
retain “exceptionally high CRE
concentration for which losses
could compromise their safety
and soundness”, it added.
Nearly 33% of US banks have
commercial property loan books
which are so big versus their
capital buffers that they
exceed regulatory guidance. So
where are the
regulators?
Inner City
Press asked the IMF
spokesperson, noting the
Mnuchin investment in NYCB
(and imposition of Joseph
Otting as CEO).
IMF Spokesperson
Julie Kozack replied that the
risk is real and is being
studied, with more to come in
the GSFR. Watch this site.
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2023 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
