Working to clear obstacles in the way of IMF review
Mr. Gylfi Magnusson Minister for Economic Affairs and Mr. Steingrimur J. Sigfusson Minister for Finance met on Thursday March 25 and Friday March 26 with top management and board members of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC. On Friday morning (Washington DC local time) the ministers met with Dominique Strauss-Kahn Managing Director and Murilo Portugal Deputy Managing Director. Meetings with several Executive Directors took place over the two days. Fund representatives expressed general agreement with the view that the parties should strive to clear away any further obstacles in the way of the next periodic review of Iceland's performance under the economic programme supported under a stand-by arrangement with the IMF.
In discussions with fund representatives the two ministers stressed that the next review of the economic programme should be finished as soon as possible, irrespective of the state of bilateral talks between Iceland and member states. Thus, progress of the Icesave discussions should not be a prerequiste for reaching future milestones. The ministers also stressed the importance of continuing Iceland's collaboration with the fund, as it would be one of the prerequisites for removing further obstacles in the path of economic recovery.
The parties agreed that the development of key economic indicators for Iceland should give rise to optimism about the success of Iceland's economic programme. For example, the contraction of GDP in 2009 was much less severe than early fund forecasts had indicated and there were signs that unemployment would peak at lower levels than had been feared.
"We have had fruitful discussion with fund representatives about positive signs of economic progress in Iceland and how we can ensure that the fund's next review of performance under the economic programme will not be delayed any further. We will of course need to find a solution which takes into consideration the status of our bilateral talks with the British and Dutch governments and the conditions on funding of the programme which were set by our Nordic partners. I am however very hopeful that this can be solved and the next review can take place within a few weeks," said Gylfi Magnusson Minister for Economic Affairs.