Listen: Mozambican analysts question resumption of IMF support to state budget

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Listen: Mozambican analysts question resumption of IMF support to state budget

3:23 CAT | 14 Nov 2019

Adriano Nuvunga recalls that "direct support to the State Budget was interrupted precisely because the IMF recommended it following disclosure of the so-called hidden debts ..." [File photo: Voa Portugues]

Analysts say the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recently reviewed position [on support for Mozambique’s public expenditure] is surprising, and consider the institution’s openness to dialogue with the Mozambique government on resuming support for the state budget, which was interrupted following the discovery of the country’s ‘hidden debts’, problematic.

Ricardo Veloso, head of a visiting IMF mission, announced in Maputo on Wednesday (13-11-19) that the government had asked the IMF to resume talks about support for the State Budget.

Adriano Nuvunga, director of the Centre for Democracy and Development, one of Mozambique’s most active civil society organisations. thinks the IMF stance is problematic.

“Direct support to the (Mozambican) State Budget by the partners was interrupted precisely because the IMF recommended it following disclosure of the so-called hidden debts, but above all because of the requirement to follow up on the Kroll report regarding information on the actual beneficiaries of these debts, but no steps have yet been taken,” he says.

Analyst Francisco Matsinhe agrees, saying the IMF’s position is astonishing, since “there have been no developments regarding the hidden debts other than the US trial of former Credit Swiss bankers and Prinvivest managers.”

Source: Voa Portugues