President Leonel Fernandez announced yesterday that he would seek a two-year Stand By Agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He said that this would provide more funding than the agreement that was signed earlier this year by the Mejia government, but which was suspended after that administration failed to comply with the terms established. Fernandez said that he would send a team to Washington to present the Dominican position. Fernandez told reporters from the Listin Diario that the uneasiness of American authorities regarding the renewal of the agreement has been supplanted by a positive attitude towards the Dominican Republic attaining the goals set forth in the program of economic stability.
Talking about money, President Fernandez said that he would seek a two-year deal that would bring resources of more than the US$1 billion now contained in the agreement under suspension. That agreement, signed in August of 2003, provided for a first disbursement of US$120 million to reinforce the foreign reserves of the Central Bank. The country would also benefit from 437.8 million in special draft privileges equal to US$600 million, and of which 87.6 million were disbursed a week later at a total of US$120 million. Of the total amount of money that was considered in the initial IMF agreement, US$657 million was to come from the IMF and another US$400 million from the World Bank and the International Development Bank.