An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team led by Mr. Schimmelpfennig, and representatives from the Afghan authorities held discussions over a new economic program that could be supported by the Fund on the sidelines of the 2011 Annual Meetings in Washington, DC.

Mr. Schimmelpfennig made the following statement at the conclusion of the talks today:

“Afghanistan has made substantial progress on a number of actions intended to safeguard financial and economic stability, which, when completed, would serve as the basis for a new program. We welcome the progress achieved. Over the last few days, the Afghan authorities and an IMF team reached an understanding on the structural reform agenda of the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies that could be supported by a Fund program. This will allow an IMF mission to visit Kabul shortly to update macroeconomic projections underlying a possible program. The Afghan authorities have committed to complete a number of remaining actions over the coming month, and once these are done, the IMF’s Executive Board is expected to consider the request for a new Fund supported program.”