Tuesday in Washington, Jean Baden Dubois, the Governor of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH), accompanied by Gary Bodeau the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies on tour in Washington until April 11 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27410-haiti-news-zapping.html participated in a high-level working session at the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Discussions focused on the $229 million 0% three-year concessional loan signed last March. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27124-haiti-flash-the-government-will-borrow-$229m-from-the-imf.html whose deadline for approval (with conditions) is April 24th.

Recall that the process of advancing the file at the IMF is currently suspended as announced by Gerry Rice, Director of Communications of the IMF "We can not move the process forward to the IMF Executive Board without a little more clarification on the establishment of a new government and the introduction of the budget [...] We hope that political uncertainties can be quickly dissipated so that we take back the work to help Haiti and the Haitian people facing enormous socio-economic challenges." https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27261-haiti-economy-progress-of-imf-loan-of-$229m-suspended.html

The purpose of this meeting was to try to obtain an extension of the deadline. At the end of the meeting, Gary Bodeau was satisfied saying that he had managed to negotiate a new deadline of up to June given the time required for the installation of the new Government. Bodeau believes he managed to convince the IMF team that there was no other choice that to postpone the deadline and promised to grant the benefit of urgency to the draft budget, once submitted to the lower chamber.

No official comment for the moment from the Governor of the BRH nor the IMF, while a source close to the file indicates that the IMF would want a new Government to be installed in Haiti within 30 days... one of the conditions required before making any disbursement.

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27410-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27261-haiti-economy-progress-of-imf-loan-of-$229m-suspended.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-27124-haiti-flash-the-government-will-borrow-$229m-from-the-imf.html

SL/ HaitiLibre