Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente, yesterday, met with Mohamed-Lemine Raghani, International Monetary Fund’s Executive Director for the Africa II Group.
Raghani represents about 24 African nations – including Rwanda – on the IMF board.
He said the IMF was impressed with the country’s growing economy, especially the "strong performance made in recent years” as far as implementing IMF programmes was concerned.
Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente welcomes Mohamed-Lemine Raghani the International Monetary Fund Executive Director for the Africa II Group during his meeting yesterday(Sam Ngendahimana)
Speaking about what transpired in the meeting between Raghani and the Prime Minister, Uzziel Ndagijimana, the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, said that the IMF welcomed how the Rwandan economy was performing, especially efforts put into elevating the contribution of local resources towards the national budget.
The budget for the fiscal year 2019/2020 demonstrated that Rwanda is willing to steer its economy towards self-reliance as it increased the contribution of domestic resources to 68.3 per cent, up from about 67 per cent in the former 2018/2019 budget.
Ndagijimana said that Rwanda was ready to work with the IMF in the coming years to, among other things, continue raising the local capacity for greater self-reliance so that "the loans we get will not put the country in trouble”.
Mohamed-Lemine Raghani the International Monetary Fund Executive Director for the Africa II Group speaks to media after the meeting
Rwanda’s debt remains relatively low with a present value of debt to GDP at 32.9 per cent against a threshold of 50 per cent.
The share of concessional loans in the total debt stock stood at 63 per cent as of end 2018 compared to 57.4 per cent in 2017.
Raghan said that his meeting with the Prime Minister also was an opportunity to discuss how to better defend the interests of Rwanda on the board of IMF.
"We had a good discussion and got guidance from the Prime Minister on the best way to accomplish our mission,” he said.
The International Monetary Fund is an organisation of 189 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.
Created in 1945, the IMF is governed by and accountable to the 189 countries that make up its near-global membership.
The IMF’s primary purpose is to ensure the stability of the international monetary system—the system of exchange rates and international payments that enables countries (and their citizens) to transact with each other.
The Fund’s mandate was updated in 2012 to include all macroeconomic and financial sector issues that bear on global stability.
editor@newtimesrwanda.com