Lukong Pius Nyuylime
2 September 2008
The joint mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the African Development Bank that arrived in the country last weekend continued work yesterday with Cameroonian officials on the Sixth Economic and Financial Programme review.
After having the first working session with the Minister of Finance, Essimi Menye, last Friday during which Dhaneshwar Ghura and his team discussed issues to be handled during the two weeks of the team's stay in the country, deliberations continued over the weekend and yesterday in Yaounde. The two parties, members of the mission and Cameroonian officials are having discussions behind closed doors.
According to the programme, the parties tackled activities in the oil sector with particular focus on the first quarter of 2008, projections for the second quarter and those for the period running from 2009 to 2011. The other area of interest in the sector included petroleum price-fixing policy for 2008 and 2009. The experts were equally expected to review the recent macroeconomic evolution and perspective for 2008 and 2009 as well as look at Cameroon's internal debt situation for 2007 and projections for 2008 to 2009.
The programme is particularly charged today with the team expected to have meetings on topics such as balance of trade, fiscal reform necessary to increase non oil revenue, public expenditure management reform system and the implementation of the new organic law, and evaluation of the programme execution for the January-June period.
From every indication discussions are focussing on the achievements and the efforts made towards the implementation of the three-year arrangement under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF). The head of the delegation last Friday said whether or not the three-year programme is the last for Cameroon, will depend on the Cameroonian authorities. "We are equally here to discuss with Cameroonian authorities their intensions, what they want to do and as you know, the IMF is always ready to help its member states", Dhaneshwar Ghura said.
Discussions on the fifth review under the PRGF arrangement took place from February 28 to March 13 and in Washington on April 14 to 23.
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