Practically half of the more than RD$100 billion in certificates of deposit held at the Central Bank as part of the monetary policy to reduce money in circulation will fall due by 20 June, prior to the government turnover on 16 August. The redemption of such a high volume of CDs would fuel inflation to new records. So far, the Central Bank has controlled money in circulation by renewing the expired certificates and issuing new ones. According to Mario Mendez, the economic editor of Hoy newspaper, the International Monetary Fund, with which organization the government has signed a standby agreement, supports this policy. Mendez says that a large part of the certificates are owned by commercial banks that have been profiting the wide spread from money deposited by the general public in the commercial banks and the much higher rates the Central Bank is paying on their own CDs.