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NewsWhore
11-24-2008, 05:40 PM
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggests that the Dominican monetary policy observe "a certain margin of relief" next year, in proportion to the fiscal adjustment that the IMF mission agreed with the Dominican authorities. In a report that is published in today's El Caribe, the organization says that an IMF mission headed by Andy Wolf visited Santo Domingo from the 12th to the 19th November "to hold the first conversations about the monitoring program in the Dominican Republic."
The note refers to the Stand-by Arrangement that ended on 30 January of this year. The document goes on to say, "It is expected that these conversations will take place each semester after an IMF program expires and the exposure of the country to the IMF exceeds 100% of the quota." It adds that the last Stand-by with the country expired on 30 January 2008. The posterior monitoring is a form of intensified vigilance that complements the yearly vigilance in the framework of a consultation of Article IV.
The report points out that conversations between the members of the IMF mission and the Dominican authorities "centered on the macroeconomic policies needed to maintain the stability in view of the rapid deceleration of the world economy and restrictive international financial conditions." The report says that during these conversations there was "broad agreement that it would be necessary to have a fiscal adjustment in 2009, especially in the light of more restrictive conditions in global credit, but this hardening of the fiscal policy will create space for certain relief in the monetary policy."
As a positive point, the report says that the "country will benefit from the international reduction in food and energy prices, which has improved significantly in terms of Dominican commercial exchange and should help reduce pressure on current fiscal and foreign accounts." The IMF understands that "the prudent monetary policy applied in 2008, which contributed to a restriction of internal demand and served as an anchor for the macroeconomic stability is now beginning to produce benefits, helping to diminish the pressure on the exchange market and it is hoped that it generates a reduction in the 2009 inflation rate."

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