Palestinian Authority’s financial management reform – IMF press briefing – Transcript (excerpts)

Transcript of a Press Briefing by Thomas C. Dawson
Director, External Relations Department
International Monetary Fund
Thursday, January 16, 2003
Washington, D.C.

MR. DAWSON: Good morning, everyone. I am Tom Dawson, Director of External Relations at the IMF, and Happy New Year. This is another of our regular press briefings.

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QUESTIONER: Does the IMF have any reaction to the new budget that the Palestinian Authority has introduced?

MR. DAWSON: The Palestinian Authority has been making efforts to reform its financial management, and we think good progress has been made. At the end of December, the Minister, Minister Fayyad, the Finance Minister but also, in the interest of full disclosure, a former Fund staffer, submitted a budget proposal to the parliament. The budget is based on a tight expenditure stance and supported by strong reform measures.

We, the Fund, are continuing our technical assistance for these reforms and future reforms planned, such as strengthening of the tax administration and budget reforms in terms of integration of the capital and operating budget. So this is one of those areas where the Fund is involved with countries in a non-program sense of the word but providing technical assistance to help strengthen financial management.

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