DUSHANBE, January 30, Asia-Plus - On January 31, President Emomali Rahmonov will meet in Dushanbe with International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) mission headed by Carlos Pinerua, which has been on its visit to Tajikistan since January 25.  

On January 25, the mission already held talks with Matlubkhon Davlatov, State Adviser to the Tajik President for Economic Matters. 

According to Tajik central bank, the IMF mission held a meeting with senior representatives from a number of Tajik commercial banks at the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) yesterday.  The meeting focused on medium-term prospects of development of the banking sector in Tajikistan, situation on the inter-bank market, attraction of deposits and financial strengthening of Tajik banking sector.  

During its two-week visit to Tajikistan last November, the IMF mission conducted the so-called Article IV consultation discussions, which cover medium-term economic prospects, and explored options for the continuation of IMF engagement with Tajikistan.  President Rahmonov confirmed the authorities'' choice to work towards a program under the Policy Support Instrument (PSI) instead of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) at a meeting with the IMF mission on November 1, 2006. 

The PSI is a new IMF instrument, introduced in October 2005, to support low-income countries that do not want--or need--IMF financial assistance.  Aside from the absence of IMF financial assistance, policy conditions under the PSI are similar to those under the PRGF.  The PSI helps countries design effective economic programs that, once approved by the IMF''s Executive Board, signal to donors, multilateral development banks, and markets the IMF''s endorsement of a member''s policies. The PSI is available upon request to all PRGF-eligible countries with a Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) in place.