President Danilo Medina confirmed yesterday, Tuesday 4 September that a mission from the International Monetary Fund would be visiting the country in the next few days to start negotiations for the signing of a new agreement. The President said that when he went to Bavaro at the beginning of his administration, he talked with IMF officials and agreed that the commissioners would arrive in the Dominican Republic in the first week of September. They are expected this weekend or by next Monday, 10 September at the latest. Last week, Temistocles Montas, the Minister of Economy, Planning and Development said that his team would be going to Washington to meet the IMF within two weeks.

However, Medina said: "We will begin to negotiate an agreement with the IMF, and as the details come in, which they have and which we have and we exchange them, then we will define what kind of agreement we are going to have." He recalled that during the campaign he said that he would have to make a deal with the IMF.

The President was speaking during the swearing-in ceremony in the Ambassadors Hall at the Presidential Palace for deputy ministers, advisors, directors and sub-directors in several government agencies, appointed last weekend as part of the changes to the administration. Several days ago the government announced the postponement without a set date of the signing of the fiscal pact with national sectors, apparently expecting the signing with the IMF.

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