Got this from Interfax News Agency. I think we can all "read between the lines" here.
News Headlines for 3/29/99
IMF EXTENDS LOAN TO RUSSIA
MOSCOW, March 29 (Interfax) - Russia will receive a loan from the International Monetary Fund, Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov said after his talks with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Michel Camdessus. Their talks continued for three and a half hours. "We agreed on cooperation, and we will receive a loan; the fund's full-scale mission will come to Moscow next week to complete the work on the agreement," Primakov said. The document will stipulate "the agreements which we reached during the negotiating process," he said. The Russian government promised to ensure the 1999 primary budget surplus at 2%, he said. "This is the main condition under which the IMF decided to extend the loan," he said. Camdessus said he fully agreed with Primakov's words and thanked the IMF's Moscow friends for a warm welcome. Camdessus will not give a previously scheduled press conference, because his plane is to depart shortly, Primakov said. Primakov did not specify the volume of the loan. Minister of Taxes and Revenue, Georgy Boos, who attended the talks, said, "we will get what we need." Central Bank Chairman Viktor Geraschenko and Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov also participated in the talks. First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov confirmed that a full-scale IMF mission is to arrive in Moscow next week. "We agreed on the methods of work and on finalizing the figures," Maslyukov told Interfax. Talks with the World Bank on allocating loans will be continued as soon as a statement of the government and the Central Bank of Russia is signed, he said. The statement will eliminate the remaining obstacles for receiving loans from both the IMF and the World Bank. |
