The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is demanding that the government establish a defined expense plan to avoid deviations from what is already programmed. The government’s economic team is discussing two alternatives with the IMF: the negotiation of a new expense goal or the substitution of expense increases with the reduction of expenses in other areas. A source from the government’s team confirmed to Diario Libre that the IMF has made the requests in several meetings held during the last two weeks to establish the way the LPG subsidy would be retained. El Caribe reports that maintaining the subsidy will make the government renegotiate a greater deficit with the IMF because there will not be additional fiscal income. The official source estimates the subsidy will cost the government between 2 and 3 billion pesos. However, the government is in good standing for the negotiation of softer conditions in the stand-by agreement: the low inflation rate between January and May (0.77%), the stability of the exchange rate (which has remained lower than RD$30 to US$1), and economic growth, which according to the Central Bank was 4.3% during the first quarter of this year. On Tuesday President Leonel Fernandez announced the government’s decision to maintain the RD$17.29-per-gallon subsidy of LPG both for domestic and public transport use.