IMF
Disburses
$18.4 to Mali,
Sanogo &
Arrest of PM
No Problem
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 28 --
When the
International
Monetary Fund
board
voted Monday
to disburse
$18.4 million
to Mali, it
raised not
only
funds but
questions.
The
IMF's
embargoed
press release
recounted how
an earlier IMF
disbursement
had been
"derailed by
the March 2012
coup d'etat
and its
aftermath."
Inner
City Press
asked the
IMF's head of
mission
Christian Josz
what had
changed, given
that coup
leader Amadou
Sanogo is
still a power
in the
Malian Army,
and the prime
minister Josz
met with in
November,
Cheick
Modibo Diarra,
had since been
arrested in
his home and
not allowed to
leave the
country.
Josz
replied that
the change had
been the
willingness of
donors to
contribute to
Mali -- a
product of the
French
military
intervention
-- and the
effect on GDP
growth
projections,
which had
fallen from
5.6% to
negative 1.5%
before going
back up.
The
French
military
intervention,
then, brought
money to Mali
through the
IMF, run by
France's
former finance
minister
Christine
Lagarde.
Inner
City Press
asked a follow
up, whether
the IMF board
had considered
the various
impacts on GDP
growth if the
African-led
force AFISMA
takes the lead
instead of
France, and if
northern Mali
is given
political
autonomy.
Josz
protested that
the IMF only
considers
"macro-economics."
But in this
case, it seems
that the
sudden
willingness of
France and
other Western
donors to
contribute,
after bombing,
is what turned
things around
for the IMF.
In
turn, the IMF
says it is
only
disbursing
funds because
the Western
donors are now
willing. It's
a circle, and
sometimes it
can be
lucrative, if
only to the
tune of $18.4
million, to be
the subject of
a military
intervention.
Confidence can
rise!
Josz said that
95% of Mali's
GDP is from
the south,
where a new
coal mine in
opening. He
said a third
mobile phone
operator is
opening in
Mali. He
compared the
$18.4 million
to a $110
million gap.
(Back
on March 22,
2012, Inner
City Press
asked the IMF
about the coup
which had just
occured in
Mali and they
respond with a
quote from
Josz: 'The
economic
program of the
government of
Mali supported
by the IMF
remains on
track," click
here for that.)
Josz
when he
visited the
country in
November met
also with
Tienan
Coulibaly,
then Minister
of Economy,
Finance and
Budget. A
Tieman
Coulibaly
showed up at
the UN in
December as
the Foreign
Minister,
and Inner City
Press asked
him about
Sanogo and the
arrest "in
the airport"
of then prime
minister
Cheick Modibo
Diarra.
Tieman
Coulibaly
said of course
Sanogo still
has a role,
and dispute
where
Cheick Modibo
Diarra had
been arrest --
not in the
airport, but
in
his home. Video
here from Minute 5:40. Is
that better?
Watch this
site.
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