The Diario Libre newspaper reports that in a press conference in Washington, DC yesterday the International Monetary Fund (IMF) external public relations director, Thomas C Dawson, warned that the Dominican Republic has not complied with the structural measures required by the Fund, and neither has the IMF received the necessary guarantees from the country’s creditors. “The ball is in the Dominican authorities’ court,” Dawson is quoted as saying. Until these requirements are met, the IMF will not sign the agreement that allows the letter of intent to proceed. As a consequence, the pending disbursements will not go ahead. Dawson, in the text of the press briefing, describes the status of the agreement as such: “We don’t have a date yet. We had a mission in December, which reached a broad agreement with the authorities on the main elements of a program for the First Review under the present two-year standby. At this point the authorities are working on a number of macro policy and structural measures that are critical to the success of the program. They need to implement these measures, and we need to get financing assurances from official creditors. Only at that point would we be able to finalize the letter of intent and circulate it to the board. So in that sense of the word, action at this point is with the authorities as they’re trying to put into implementation the agreement that they reached with the mission in December. And, once we have something on that, we certainly will let you know.” This confirms recent reports that there is no firm date as yet for the signing of the agreement, despite the Dominican government’s efforts to put a better spin on the status of the negotiations. Dawson denied, however, that the IMF was concerned about the possibility the DR would default on its loans. Reports indicate that an IMF mission is currently holding talks with the Paris Club about the possibility of rescheduling the Dominican Republic’s debts. The country could see its repayments phased out to US$350 million this year and US$270 million in 2005, instead of the current target of US$850 million for this year. A full transcript of the press conference is available on the IMF website www.imf.org/external/np/tr/2004/tr040115.htm