By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 28 -- With Ali Abdullah Saleh still in power in Yemen, the International Monetary Fund has said it “would be ready to work with the Yemeni authorities including by looking at the means of financial assistance once the situation allows.”
On April 28, Inner City Press asked the IMF's David Hawley to “describe the IMF's interface with Syria and Yemen, and how the crackdowns there may impact that, and how they are viewed by the IMF.”
Hawley said that the IMF's program with Yemen are “on hold in the current situation,” and then referred to comments by IMF Middle East and Central Asia director Masood Ahmed -- who is the one who said, the previous day in Dubai, that the IMF is “ready to work with the Yemeni authorities... once the situation allows.”
Does that mean a reduction in violence -- which could be brought about, at least theoretically, by MORE repression rather than less -- or the exit of Saleh? The IMF didn't say.
The World Bank has pulled staff out of Yemen, Robert Zoellick said in response to Inner City Press' question at the IMF & World Bank Spring Meetings two weeks ago, click here for that.
On Inner City Press' Syria question on April 28, Hawley said that the IMF “like other observers is following the situation closely” and “deplores the loss of life associated with unrest.”
In other answers, Hawley said Egypt has not yet made a proposal for money, despite reports of a $4 billion request. He declined to say if the IMF would consider “going it alone” and arranging its own bailout for Portugal if European participation were blocked by a veto.
Hawley dismissed the possibility of Greek debt restructuring and denied that Dominique Strauss-Kahn is going to Athens for meetings. We'll see.
Foonote: Inner City Press timely submitted another question on April 28 which Hawley neither answered nor even mentioned, and will be writing about it, but is first waiting to see how and if the IMF responds. Watch this site.
