Talks for IMF extended fund facility begin
05.08.2009
A five-strong team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday took part in a meeting to begin their 10-day assessment of Seychelles’ economy, which will also allow for an extended fund facility.
Present at the meeting were Finance Minister Danny Faure, Central Bank governor Pierre Laporte and other officials from the bank and the ministry.
The IMF team is led by Paul Mathieu, who headed previous reviews of our economic reform programme, launched last November.
“The team decided to come now to allow the IMF to carry out a technical assessment of what’s happening in Seychelles,” principal secretary for finance Ahmed Afif said in an interview.
“It is really an informal assessment rather than a review of what is happening. It is also an opportunity for them to learn the thinking of the government and to prepare a framework and the groundwork for an extended fund facility, which we hope to negotiate later in the year.”
Mr Afif said an extended fund facility involves the authorities agreeing to certain norms of fiscal and monetary policy, and any other structural reforms or adjustments that may be required, in return for some form of financial help “and it is very similar to a Stand-by Arrangement”.
He said the team chose to do the informal assessment ahead of the next review so as to reduce their workload when the time for that official evaluation comes, towards the end of the year.
“The assessment is very useful and is a chance for the team to spread and lessen the workload when they come for the formal review,” said Mr Afif.
“If they hadn’t come now, the gap would have been much bigger than it was when they came last time, and they would have had more work assimilating all the facts and getting a technical impression of how things are going.
“They will be on the ground assessing and verifying the facts for themselves, because their job is not just taking facts from the state.”