Investors remain in Mozambique thanks to the IMF – Afreximbank

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Investors remain in Mozambique thanks to the IMF – Afreximbank

2:58 CAT | 24 Jun 2019

Headquarters Building of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in Caio, Egypt. [Photo: Afreximbank]

The chief economist of the Afreximbank has said that Mozambique will remain an investment destination as long as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) remains in the country.

Commenting on the financial crisis into which Mozambique was plunged after the discovery of US$2 million in debts taken on by state-owned companies, Hippolyte Fofack told Lusa, on the sidelines of the bank’s annual meetings in Moscow, that international investors became more attentive to Mozambique, but have kept projects under way thanks to the guarantees provided by international entities.

Image result for afreximbank Hippolyte Fofack — *Hippolyte L. Fofack. Chief Economist/Director, Research and International Cooperation The African Export-Import Bank*

“When the IMF is still behind a country, I think we should give it an opportunity and support it, because the IMF ensures that governance is in accordance with international standards,” the head of the Cairo-based Pan-African bank whose main focus is the financing and promotion of trade and investment on the continent, explained.

“The best way to help a country is not to desert it, but to have a credit policy articulated with international public policies,” the Afreximbank’s chief economist said, going on compared Mozambique to the Greek debt crisis.

In Greece, there was “a debt crisis linked to fiscal management problems”, but the IMF and the World Bank supported the country and monitored all steps so as “to maintain investor confidence”.

The role of these international financial organisations “is so essential that many investors will patiently wait for IMF consultations to assess whether they will enter or leave a country”.

In the case of Mozambique, Fofack admitted that the international community could not abandon the country. If they were to do so, a systemic crisis would be created that could make it very difficult for a country to recover, ever, he said.

Source: Lusa