| On Tunisia IMF Tells Inner
City Press It Stands Ready as
President Kais Saied Slams IMF
Recipes
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY
COURTHOUSE,
June 8 – When the
International Monetary Fund
held a question and answer
briefing on June 8, 2023,
Inner City Press asked on
Tunisia, about Italy's urging
IMF help while President Kais
Saied says the IMF provides
"ready-made recipes" for
treatment without knowing the
causes of the disease.
IMF
Spokesperson Julie Kozack took
the question and replied,
diplomatically, about strong
partnership and that the IMF
stands ready.
On Zambia,
on which Inner City also
submitted a question, Ms.
Kozack said that after the May
25 meeting there is another
one, of creditors. She was
also asked about a New York
law forcing creditors to the
table - more on this to
follow.
More on Substack
here
Back
in March, 2023, Transcript:
Okay. I now have
a question from Matthew Lee.
Matthew, good morning over to
you.
Inner City Press:
Sure. Thanks a lot. I wanted
to ask about Tunisia. There's
a lot of, in fact, yesterday
at the Standard Forum Banking,
excuse me, Foreign Relations
Committee and Secretary
Blinken has commented, Mr.
Browning's talked about it.
What's the status of a
program? There seems to be a
sense that I don't know if the
comments about migration have
caused some delay, or the
monopolization of power by the
president. But there seems to
be concern among, I guess,
powerful IMF member states
about the status of the
program. And I'd like to know
what the thinking is, what the
slowdown is, and what the
future portends.
MS. KOZACK: Okay.
Very good. Anything else --
any other questions on
Tunisia? Okay. Don't see
anything else coming through.
So, to take a step back and
let you know where we are with
Tunisia. On October 15th,
2022, IMF staff and the
Tunisian authorities reached a
staff level agreement to
support Tunisia's economic
policies with a four-year
arrangement under the EFF. And
this arrangement was worth
about 1.9 billion US
dollars. Tunisia's IMF
supported homegrown program
aims to restore macroeconomic
stability, strengthen social
safety nets and tax equity, as
well as to step up reforms and
support an enabling
environment for inclusive
growth and sustainable job
creation. The international
community can greatly
contribute to the success of
the authorities' program
through a rapid release of
additional financing. The
presentation of this program
to the IMF Executive Board has
been postponed to give the
Tunisian authorities more time
to complete the program
requisites. A new Board
date will be set in
consultation with the Tunisian
authorities once the
requisites are in place. And
the IMF remains a strong
partner of Tunisia and will
continue to support the
authorities in their reform
efforts, including to enhance
social equity.
Inner City Press:
That would -- just one
follow-up. I mean, I guess I
wanted to know if you're
willing to -- seems like many
people have expressed concern
about comments about the
migrant flow through Tunisia
and what's viewed as a real
anti-immigrant stance there.
Is that when you say
inclusiveness, can it be read
that way? Or is that a totally
separate issue?
MS. KOZACK: So,
we are concerned about the
recent developments in
Tunisia, and of course, we
note the steps taken by the
authorities to address the
situation. The IMF remains
engaged with Tunisia, notably
to support efforts to enhance
social equity and promote
inclusive growth.
Inner City Press:
: Thanks a lot.
Video will
go up on IMF website - watch
this site.
***
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