IMF
Peppered
on Lagarde's
Linking Greece
to
Niger, But
Sudan
UNanswered
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 31 -- The
International
Monetary
Fund's
biweekly
embargoed
press briefing
on Thursday
focused almost
entirely on
the
protests to
Managing
Director
Christine
Lagarde's
comments that
Greeks should
pay their
taxes -- while
she does not
pay taxes --
and
as one Greek
journalist
focused in on,
her comparison
of Greece and
Niger.
IMF
spokesman
Gerry Rice
responded to
this last by
paying the IMF
has to serve
all
of its members
including the
low income
ones; he
directed the
press
to Lagarde's
clarification
if not apology
on Facebook.
But is it
enough?
The
questions on
Greece kept
coming, until
Rice said,
this will be
our last
question
on Greece. But
it wasn't.
Inner
City Press
submitted a
number of
questions,
including "On
Hungary, can
you respond to
an analysis
(by Citigroup)
that "the
IMF may still
require
structural
expenditure
cuts and
changes to the
tax system"?
Rice
said, on
Hungary, that
there are "no
dates... to
start
negotiations,"
adding that
"we do
continue" to
be in
touch with
"the Hungarian
authorities. A
lot of actions
are
needed," he
said, "to
ensure central
bank
independence."
Then
the
questioning
turned back to
Greece. Rice
said there
will be no new
mission until
elections and
a new
government.
One wonders
how big
the protests
would be, if
Lagarde went
there now?
Others
of Inner City
Press'
questions have
yet to be
answered, on
Pakistan,
the Democratic
Republic of
Congo, Cote
d'Ivoire and
one on Sudan,
on
which the UN
Security
Council was
simultaneously
meeting on
Thursday
morning:
On
Cote
d'Ivoire, can
you confirm
that next
month a
decision is
expected
on "an
IMF-backed
debt relief
deal calling
for relief of
$5-billion of
the country's
debt, reducing
its current
stock of debt
by 40%"?
What
is
the status of
Pakistan
reaching out
for a new
facility? Is
it true
the "IMF
wants Pakistan
to raise tax
revenue from
the present
10% of GDP to
15% of GDP by
2013"?
On
Sudan,
because some
are critical
of the IMF's
Edward Gemayel
recent
recommendation
of a
"structural
reform
program,"
could you
explain what
this means for
the Sudanese?
Watch
this site.
Footnote:
the press
corps covering
the IMF backed
each other up
in pushing
questions on
Greece and
Lagarde's
comments, in
contrast for
example to
some in the UN
press corps
these days.
Follow
ups were sharp,
and
journalists
didn't allow
themselves to
be used as a
way to turn
away from or
even refuse
others'
questions.
It seemed
unlikely there
would be
pressure to
take down
stories, or
for purges
or expulsion.
Does money in
the water make
the reporting
more serious?
Even within
the same mega
wire
services?
, 
