Mali’s minister of Economy and Finance, Mrs. Bouaré Fily Sissoko, on Thursday denied rumours of a rift between the West African country and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and announced that a mission from the Bretton Woods institution would visit Mali in September.
“The most important thing is that on both sides, we decided not to have a break. IMF thinks that at the arrival of the mission, we will find agreement. As soon as we receive their letter, we will reply and will work to be able to meet or a hold video conference in a bid to reach agreement by the end of June,” she said.
Explaining the report on the joint Mali-IMF review, she said that there was no break with IMF as the institution’s representatives had indicated many times.
“The problem is that IMF blames us for making two transactions without their knowledge. It is about the buying of an airplane for 20 billion CFAF and the transaction for equipment for the army at 69 billion CFAF for which the government gave 100 billion CFAF guarantee,” she said.
According to the minister of Economy and Finance, the two transactions were made by taking into consideration the country’s macro-economic situation.
“We made sure that they will not increase the financing gap of the budget, a gap which is often filled by our partners and IMF,” she said.
The minister justified the 100 billion CFAF guarantee saying “we are a country at war which absolutely needs those equipment”.
