Wednesday, 16 March 2005
Today RA Prime Minister A. Margaryan has received Mr. Hasan Al-Atrashi, Chief of Mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who has arrived in Armenia to hold discussions over the second three-year program of cooperation between the IMF and our country.
By mentioning that the RA Minister of Finance and Economy had already reported back the results of the discussions held with the representatives of the Fund, the Prime Minister further focused on the draft Memorandum to be signed with the IMF regarding the 2005-2008 economic and financial policies. According to the Prime Minister, his government estimated the cooperation with the Fund to have been quite effective so far and stressed that the new program was supposed to build on the existing achievements based on the Strategic Program for Poverty Reduction.
The parties indicated that the new program was going to draw upon the tangible progress made in implementing the preceding one, which came to completion on December 31, 2004. The main focus would be placed on maintaining the macroeconomic stability through prudential monetary and fiscal policies and reform of the financial sector, which are crucial in respect of mobilising additional domestic resources to promote economic growth and poverty reduction, as well as to prop up the emerging private sector.
Mr. Hasan Al-Atrashi took the opportunity to compliment the Prime Minister for his government's well-performing and efficacious economic policies carried out over the past few years. In particular, he said to be quite impressed by the recent GDP growth and noticed that poverty had been curbed considerably owing to the on-going harmonious and well-balanced economic policies. Mr. Hasan Al-Atrashi stressed that the Armenian strategic paper for poverty reduction was cited as an example by the IMF.
The parties also touched upon the status of the FY2005 State budget implementation process, the progress in achieving the targeted key indicators and defying the challenges faced on the way to reforming and improving tax and customs administration, providing for more conducive business environment and other issues.
In closing, Prime Minister A. Margaryan and Chief of Mission Hasan Al-Atrashi said to be optimistic about the success of the new cooperation program, which was meant to help Armenia make another step forward towards poverty reduction and improved living standards for the population.
