By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 23 -- At the International Monetary Fund's May 22 embargoed briefing, spokesperson Gerry Rice answered Inner City Press' question about the Balkan floods; afterward, his office provided a response on Yemen.
From the IMF transcript released today, video here from Minute 26:
GERRY RICE: Let me go online for a minute, because I've got a couple of questions here from Matthew Russell Lee. He asked Mali... and about the serious flooding in the Balkans which we're all, of course, very concerned about that. He's asking about the impact on the countries of the Balkans, and Serbia, and Bosnia.
Serbia's, again, been significantly affected. We have great concern, also, about the human casualties and the wide-spread damage, but we do not yet know the full extent of that. As an EU pre-accession country Serbia will be eligible for aid from the EU's disaster Fund.
In the meantime, the IMF engaged with Serbia through our policy advice, as well as in our discussion with other international, financial organizations through our resident representative. On Bosnia, actually, we have a staff team on the ground right now.
Inner City Press, beyond Mali (reported here), had also asked about Yemen, adding the response to that as an update and now here:
ICP Question: Yemen's Finance Minister said the country will reduce fuel subsidies to get a $500M IMF program, hoped to be concluded by end of May. What is the status, and what about fuel shortages and impacted Yemenis?
IMF Answer: A mission is discussing with the authorities their economic reform program and how the IMF can support them.
Well, a similar reduction in subsidies by the government in 2005 led protests that left dozens killed and wounded. And now, after deporting a journalism, Yemen says it will inform about its military operations by putting its own videos on YouTube... Watch this site.
