March 14, Minsk /Anna Kot - BELTA/. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) review mission under Article IV of the IMF's Articles of Agreement will be working in Minsk from March 14 to March 25. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by the Belarusian office of the IMF.
The IMF mission is headed by David Hoffman. Fund experts will conduct the fourth post-programme monitoring of the Belarusian economy following the implementation of the stand-by arrangement. The programme was implemented from January 2009 to April 2010 and was supported by an IMF loan of $3.5 billion, which contributed to positive dynamics in several areas of the Belarusian economy and monetary sphere.
The mission's work programme includes consultations between Fund experts and the Government and the National Bank of Belarus on macroeconomic, fiscal, and monetary policies of the authorities, as well as on the development prospects of the Belarusian economy.
The IMF's activities in Belarus are aimed at cooperating with the Government and the National Bank in preparing economic policy programmes with a focus on fiscal and monetary policy, exchange rate, and trade policy, with the goal of achieving significant economic growth, low inflation, and balance of payments sustainability.
The International Monetary Fund is a specialised agency of the UN headquartered in Washington, D.C. (USA). The official date of the IMF's establishment is December 27, 1945. Belarus has been a member of the IMF since 1992; its quota at the beginning of 2013 was SDR 386.4 million ($542.1 million).-0-