Is Bengoa over-confident?

[NewsWhore]

Hacienda Minister Vicente Bengoa says that there is no reason for the country to sign another agreement with the IMF after the current stand-by arrangement expires at the end of January 2008. Bengoa is quoted in Diario Libre as saying that the government is up to date with payments on the public, external and internal debts and that there will be a budget surplus this year. He added that the external debt as a percentage of the GDP was at 19.6% in June, down from 34.2% in 2004. He says that the internal public debt has declined to 2.1% of the GDP. In 2004 the internal public debt was 2.7% of the GDP and in 2000 it was 1.8%. As for the public sector deficit, the Minister says that it was 7.71% of the GDP in 2004 and in 2007 it is at 1.7% of the GDP. He says that preferential interest rates are at 11%. Active nominal interest rates are at 16.23% and passive nominal interest rates are at 7.35%. Mortgage rates are at 13.28%. The Minister says that vehicle imports have increased by 47.6% during the current administration, for an additional 70,000 vehicles. Bengoa added that international cash reserves could reach US$2 billion and the exchange rate has been stabilized.

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