Sankar,
It's probably a wishful thought by someone at that site. WSJ on Fri has an article about Indonesia. It says that the IMF is standing its ground. Here's an excerpt:
January 9, 1998
IMF Warns Indonesians:
Meet Goals or No Deal
By BOB DAVIS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- Struggling to keep its Asian rescue plans on track, the
International Monetary Fund is sending different messages to Indonesia
and Thailand.
IMF officials said they believe that Indonesia hasn't made a good-faith
effort to institute the economic changes pledged under a $43 billion
bailout plan and warned they may cut off Jakarta from further loans. To
underscore their concern, the fund will send an IMF economic team Friday
followed on Sunday by Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer and soon
afterward by Managing Director Michel Camdessus. The IMF said it
"believes the recent depreciation of the rupiah represents a significant
overreaction by the market," but its top executives are sure to tell
Indonesian officials that they need to follow the IMF's prescription to
reverse the market debacle.
"You can tell when things are going off track," said an IMF official.
"That's the point where you have to get very serious."
.... deleted about Thailand ....
With Indonesia, the fund's delegates Thursday debated the Indonesian
situation during a long meeting in which they were expected to approve
another $2 billion in loans for South Korea. Additionally, the IMF is
reviewing Indonesia's most recent budget, which calls for stepped-up
spending rather than IMF-mandated austerity, and has sent a letter
outlining its concern to the Indonesian government.
The IMF already has made available $3 billion to Indonesia, and is
scheduled to disburse another $3 billion by March 15. An IMF team will
fly to Jakarta later this month or early next month to review the
program-and to press Indonesian financial authorities to make the
necessary changes.
Complaints Are Specified
Along with the budget, IMF officials say Jakarta has gone ahead with
needless infrastructure projects and hasn't lived up to its word to
close 16 banks. One of the banks was owned by President Suharto's son,
who criticized the IMF requirement and then opened a new bank on the
site of the shuttered one.
.... deleted about Thai and Russia to the end of the article ....
Sorry for the deletions. I feel a bit queasy posting this article w/o authorization. By deleting, I hope WSJ will not go after me since a partial post may serve as a teaser for more people to subscribe.
-Al |
