DR: High cost of doing business with the IMF

Black Stalin sang, "oppress man, man must live. Exploit man, man must live." Dominicanos are learning this from their dealings with the IMF. Living won't be easy cuz the IMF's policy seems to be, when you have them by the short and curlies, squeeze!!

Mario Mendez, economic editor for Hoy newspaper, says the Dominican people are paying a dear price for the government's "error" of plowing ahead with the purchase of the power distributors in August 2003 without authorization from the International Monetary Fund. The country had just signed an agreement with the IMF that established ceilings on government indebtedness, when the authorities announced the buyback of the Edes from the Spanish Union Fenosa. At the time, the Central Bank Governor Jose Lois Malkun was in Dubai attending an international conference. As a result, the IMF quickly suspended the agreement and the DR was obliged to negotiate a new agreement - one that Mendez says will cost taxpayers much more. He said that in the first agreement drawn up in mid-2003 the inflation estimated for year-end was 35%. Following the suspension and renegotiation, inflation was re-pegged at 42.7%.