Sterling say cash flow will increase by 400% in 2006

Hope all had a great Christmas

Just a little bit of information for us SEY holders that may have been missed over the festive period, but I feel is quite important to the end game.



/noticias.info/ Mauritania's government said on Thursday a decision by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to delay forgiving debt owed by the country would give it time to improve its credibility in the world financial community, reports Reuters.

The IMF's executive board on Wednesday agreed to write off $3.3 billion owed to it by 19 of the world's poorest countries. But it delayed forgiving Mauritania's debt because IMF officials said the country first needed to make satisfactory progress in policy areas like public expenditure management and financial relations with the Fund. But they predicted it could obtain the debt write-off in the coming months.

Senior Mauritanian officials on Thursday presented an upbeat public response to the IMF announcement. "It's the most favorable decision that could be given to Mauritania, from the point of view of ... the credibility of the country," Central Bank Governor Zein Ould Zeidane told a news conference. He and other officials said the IMF had agreed a six-month observation period to give Mauritania time to make the necessary policy improvements to become eligible for the debt forgiveness. "There is no problem of confidence between Mauritania and the IMF," Zeidane said.

Economic Affairs and Development Minister Mohamed Ould Abeid said the government would work to carry out the necessary reforms to secure foreign investments in Mauritania. Finance Minister Abdallahi Ould Souleymane Ould Cheikh Sidya said Mauritania's multilateral debt with organizations like the IMF amounted to $835 million. He saw an improvement in relations with the fund, noting that Mauritania's previous rulers had broken off a previous IMF program before the bloodless coup in August in which a military junta ousted President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya.

Agence France Presse writes the Country's Finance Minister, Abdellahi Ould Suleimane, told a press conference in Nouakchott Thursday that the decision was "positive considering the bad relations that existed for two years between Mauritania and the IMF. The IMF ceased including the country in its programs for two years because not only did it have doubts about the sincerity of figures put forward by the BCM (Central Bank of Mauritanie) but it had demanded an assessment of its management since 2003," Ould Suleimane said. The Fund's officials at first suggested a trial period of one year but had reduced the period because of renewed confidence in the new authorities' economic policy and transparency, the minister said.

The country's military junta, which seized power in a bloodless coup on August 3 this year, has vowed to hasten the country's return to democracy with a new freely elected president by March 2007. The government assured the Fund its engagements would be "respected to the letter and from now on transparency will apply to the economic management of the country", Ould Suleimane said. Forecast revenues from oil exports, due to start in March-April, would yield about $200 million next year and "will go in priority to the service of citizens and their well-being," he said.

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