The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday, Fwebruary 28, authorized loans totalling $34 million for Yemen to support the country's efforts to reduce poverty and spark growth. A three-year loan package of $479 million was approved for Yemen from IMF in October 1997 to disperse the money under the IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility and the agency's Extended Fund Facility. Some $246 million has already been dispersed.
IMF Deputy Managing Director Shigemitsu Sugisaki said the program adopted by the Yemeni authorities "aims at higher sustainable growth and lasting poverty reduction" by providing structural stability in the country's business and investment environment.
The Fund on Wednesday welcomed the ongoing commitment by Yemeni authorities to "adhere to a prudent fiscal policy aimed at saving some of the oil wealth for leaner years ahead and shifting public finances towards a sustainable non-oil deficit." —(AFP)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
