IMF talks on again

• Mwanakatwe reveals talks set for April

GOVERNMENT will next month hold talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington D.C. for a possible US$1.3 billion programme, Minister of Finance, Margaret Mwanakatwe, has announced.

Ms. Mwanakatwe made it clear that Government would move at its own pace in the negotiations to ensure that there was a strong footing during the discussions.

Speaking in an interview, Ms. Mwanakatwe said that Government would engage the IMF in April on the side-lines of the 2018 Spring Meetings to be held in Washington D.C.

Ms. Mwanakatwe explained that Government had engaged the IMF resident representative who had passed on the message to the group and had confirmed the meeting.

“We never disengaged with IMF because we are a member of IMF and the talks are continuous. This is a programme we very much want to be in control of and that is why we are doing a lot of internal reforms and regulations and ensure by the time we are getting to the IMF we have done our own internal cleaning up,” she said.

And Ms. Mwanakatwe said Government would take its own pace to the negotiations to ensure that it was in control of the programme while being on a strong footing during the discussions.

“When we sit with the IMF, we must be in a very strong position to be able to show that we have internally our own decisions,

“To get to that table, I want to be in that position, I do not want to be in a weak position, which is why when I am told that it is off, I wonder what people are saying because we have our own agenda, get there on a strong footing,” she explained.

Ms. Mwanakatwe said Government was in control of the programme as evidenced by the economic reforms which it was carrying out.