By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, September 11 --
Two days after 124 nations in the UN General Assembly voted to start a process on sovereign debt restructuring, Inner City Press asked the International Monetary Fund,
"What is the IMF's comment on the “sovereign debt restructuring”
resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 9? The
resolution cites the IMF's work on the issues, in 2003."
At the IMF's embargoed briefing on September 11, IMF spokesperson William Murray provided a long answer, including that the IMF is working on a "market based" solution, particularly on debt contractual
terms to prevent "hold out" problems. He mentioned, as he had to,
Argentina, which has had it own contentious relation with the IMF.
Clearly, Argentina -- and Bolivia as chair of the Group of 77 -- were aware of these IMF efforts when they pursued the issue in the UN General Assembly. We'll have more on this.
In the last briefing, Inner City Press asked the IMF about ebola. This time, Murray cited the economies of Liberia and Sierra Leone shrinking 3 to 3.5%, and Guinea by 1.5%.
On Portugal, he said the IMF has received no communication about an early pay-off.
Inner City Press also asked the IMF for its view of Cyrus' foreclosure laws -- sounds like the IMF doesn't like them -- as well as Yemen and Egypt:
What
is the IMF's view of the partial roll back by Yemen's government of
its initial cut in fuel subsidies?
On
Egypt, what is the status of the IMF's work with the country? What is
the IMF's comment on Bank of America Merrill Lynch saying it expects
no near-term IMF engagement with Egypt?
We'll have more on this as well.
When
Argentina's
foreign
minister
Héctor
Timerman held
a press
conference at
the UN at 5:30 pm
on September 9, he was flanked not only by Argentina's ambassador to the UN Maria Cristina Perceval but also the chair of the Group of 77, Sacha Llorenti of Bolivia.
They spoke of 11 countries opposing their resolution on sovereign debt and vultures funds, or sovereign debt restructuring, including the United States. Timerman took the high road, saying that Argentina would present a project with the G77 and speak with all opponents.
He asked how the UN General Assembly, which he called the most democratic forum, could be involved in so many fields but not this one. Why indeed.
Back in June, Inner
City Press
thanked Timerman and his finance
minister Axel Kicillof on
behalf of the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
then asked if
Elliott
Management and
Aurelius
Capital
hold stakes in
other G77
members, and
if the case
shows the need
for
reform, that
countries
should have at
least the same
debt
restructuring
rights as
corporations.
Kicillof
added,
states and the
people (pueblos)
they
represented.
He said that
in the G77
meeting, Peru
had spoken. An
attentive
Inner City
Press
reader chimed
in with a
question about
Ecuador, which
sold bonds
just
this week.
But
in that case,
new language
tried to avoid
the Argentina
decision of
the US Supreme
Court, just as
Belize and
Armenia have
also done on
their debt. Watch
this site.
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