Cooperation with IMF fruitful – MP

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: An Iraqi lawmaker said on Thursday that the government’s cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was fruitful and achieved several gains and objectives, including recent exemptions from $7.8 billion in debts. “Some have criticized the Iraqi government’s obligations towards the IMF as far as spending rationalization was concerned but in fact these commitments were very fruitful,” Sami al-Atroushi, a Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) member of the parliament’s Financial Committee, told IraqiNews.com. “These IMF exemptions make 20 percent of a total 80% of exemptions obtained by Iraq in 2004 from the 19 members of the Paris Club,” he said. The KIU occupies five out of the Iraqi parliament’s 275 seats. The Paris Club of creditor nations had on Monday written off $7.8 billion (one dollar equals 1,117 Iraqi dinars) of Iraq’s debts due since the time of the former regime. Atroushi pointed out that among the terms by the Paris Club is to observe the IMF recommendations regarding rationalization of the country’s expenditure. He said that Iraq needs sound planning and painstaking efforts to refresh the economy that has deteriorated during the past decades. AmR (P) 1