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Friday, March 29, 2024

IMF holds last press conference before meetings with World Bank

William Murray, the deputy spokesman of the International Monetary Fund's communications department, held a press conference on Thursday in Washington, D.C.

The briefing was one of the fund's regular, biweekly press briefings and was the last briefing before the IMF-World Bank spring meetings in Washington in mid-April.

Murray laid out the schedule of early April World Bank events and meetings, including the release of background chapters from the "Global Financial Stability Report" and the "World Economic Outlook." He also announced that the IMF concluded its mission to Zimbabwe and that the bank will resume its resident representative office in Harare in the coming months.

Murray also took questions about Ukraine at the briefing. He said the proposed deal with Ukraine would not involve debt restructuring because the program was deemed sustainable.

"We have a staff-level agreement, still subject to approval by our management and the executive board," Murray said. "There's a $27 billion package. The IMF will contribute somewhere between $14-$18 billion towards that package. The reason we're giving a range is because we're still working on lining up bilateral and multilateral contributions to the overall $27 billion."

The briefing included discussions on Greece, quota, Venezuela and governance reform in the Obama administration.