SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Sept 7 – When the
International Monetary Fund
held its biweekly embargoed
press briefing on July 15,
2021 Inner City Press
asked about crypto-currency
legislation in Paraguay and
again El Salvador, about the
assassination in Haiti and
COVID-19 lack of transparency
in Cameroon.
Spokesperson Gerry Rice
responded on each. Short video
on Twitter here;
YouTube here.
Now on September 7 on Tanzania
from the IMF, this: "September 7, 2021: The
Executive Board of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved a
disbursement of SDR132.6 million (US$189.08
million) under the Rapid Credit Facility
(RCF) and a purchase equivalent to SDR265.2
million (US$378.17 million) under the Rapid
Financing Instrument (RFI), a total of
SDR397.8 million (US$567.25 million or 100
percent of quota). This emergency financing
will help finance Tanzania’s urgent balance
of payment needs stemming from the outbreak
of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tanzania’s
economic outlook has deteriorated due to the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the
collapse in tourism in the wake of travel
restrictions, the economy reportedly
decelerated to 4.8 percent growth in 2020,
and growth is expected to remain subdued in
2021....
Following the Executive Board’s
discussion, Mr. Bo Li, Deputy Managing
Director and Chair, issued the following
statement: "The COVID-19 pandemic has
negatively impacted Tanzania’s macroeconomic
outlook, and the health and wellbeing of its
population. Growth decelerated in 2020 and
is expected to remain subdued in 2021,
increasing poverty and negatively affecting
employment.."
On July 15 Inner
City Press asked, "On Paraguay
and crypto-currency, what is
the IMF's response to the July
14 announcement of the
"Bitcoin Bill" there? And, if
any updates on El Salvador."
For the IMF, Rice
said he did not have any
comparator on Paraguay - yet?
- and he said that discussions
with El Salvador about a
program continue. He
emphasized that El Salvador
has clarified that "holding
Bitcoin is optional."
Inner City Press
on Cameroon asked, among other
things, if there was any meat
on the bones of calls for
transparency, giving the
missing COVID-19 money. Rice
said the IMF had met with the
women leaders who wrote to it,
and that a third RCF facility
will be considered by the IMF
Board in the coming weeks.
Watch this site.
On Haiti,
after Inner City Press asked
about the assassination and
where things stand, Rice for
the IMF condemned the attack
and said that the form of
future support cannot be
described but that the IMF
looks forward to working with
the incoming government.
Watch this site.
Back on January 8
Inner City Press asked the
IMF's Helge Berger, Mission
Chief, about China's so-called
Belt and Road Initiative:
"Your Article IV report cites
China's "overseas lending
projects" amid "rising
geopolitical tensions and
economic and trade frictions."
How does the IMF think that
rising debt levels among
African countries, and
increased skepticism about the
"Belt and Road" will impact or
be addressed going forward?
-Matthew Russell Lee, Inner
City Press. Video here.
(An aside: Inner
City Press has
reported on
the CEFC China
Energy Fund
Committee's
activities in
Chad and
Uganda and in
the UN, on
which the UN is
UNresponsive.)
Other questions
included
China's digital
currency (Inner
City Press also reports
on
crypto-currency
cases in the
U.S. District
Court for the
Southern
District of
New York and
elsewhere).
Berger said
when used
overseas an
issue is that
residents
could start
using another
country's
currency, if
it is easier.
We'll have more
on this.
***
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