President Hip?lito Mej?a met with the members of a mission that will travel to Washington, D.C. to follow up on the economic assistance talks begun during Mej?a?s visit to the White House last week. Central Bank Governor Jos? Lois Malkum told the press that the team would meet with representatives of the Interamerican Development Bank, the World Bank and the Treasury of the United States.
The government has been giving contradictory signals regarding the involvement of the International Monetary Fund in the financial assistance package. Speaking to the nation on Monday evening, President Mej?a had said that it was agreed that a mission of the DR, headed by the Technical Secretary of the Presidency and the Governor of the Central Bank, would meet on Thursday and Friday of this week with officers of the US Treasury, the Inter American Development bank and the International Monetary Fund to discuss and agree on the financial assistance program that the government is requesting.
But, as economist Pedro Silverio of the Cenantillas economic research institute points out in a column published in El Caribe newspaper today, this counters what Malkum said earlier today, and also what he had declared on the same day President Mej?a announced that the mission would meet with the IMF. Malkum has said previously that it would not be necessary to sign with the IMF, although the recommendations of the IMF would have to be implemented to confront the present exchange crisis.
Silverio favors signing with the IMF to restore government credibility. He points out that the economic policy of the government is like that of a ship lost at sea, where there is no certain way of trusting that the captain knows to which port he is headed. ?That is why it is not surprising the lack of confidence the economic agents have in the actions of the government. While the President announces the trip of the commission to Washington, the head of the mission says that it is not necessary to sign with the IMF. If it is not necessary, then why is the IMF included among the institutions that will be visited??
Silverio concludes that what there appears to be is a fear that signing anything with the IMF would suggest too much of a political cost, because it would be akin to admitting the failure of the government?s economic policies ? something the government does not want to recognize, despite such indicators as the exchange rate which is hovering at RD$28 to US$1. Furthermore, it would restrict government spending as the presidential approach and President Mej?a has already announced his desire to be re-elected.
Others on the government mission to Washington, D.C. are Andy Dauhajre, Lu?s N??ez and H?ctor Guiliani. In Washington, they will be joined by Ambassador Hugo Guiliani, himself a former governor of the Central Bank at the end of the Salvador Jorge Blanco government (PRD1982-1986), when rigid measures were also needed to place the Dominican economy back on the right track following the administration of the late President Antonio Guzm?n (PRD 1978-1982).