By David Lawder and Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund will likely provide Venezuela with a financial support program as part of its re-engagement with the South American oil exporter provided that certain conditions can be met, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday.
Georgieva told a press conference in Washington that the IMF is ready to assemble a staff team to work with Venezuelan authorities, but added that the country faces “a very tough road” to restore macroeconomic and financial stability.
The IMF announced its re-engagement with Venezuela on Thursday night after no dealings since March 2019 and no full economic assessment since 2004.
“After a seven-year-long pause, we are committed to actively engaging with Venezuela, to do our part to help the country achieve macroeconomic and financial stability, to help the people of Venezuela to see better days,” Georgieva said.
But first on the IMF’s list of priorities is sorting out Venezuela’s economic data, and the global lender already has reached out to the country’s finance ministry, central bank and statistical agency. Georgieva said Caracas’ “data adequacy falls very short and you can’t make good decisions if you don’t have good data.”
Second, the IMF wants to work on capacity-building to strengthen Venezuela’s economic institutions, and authorities are engaging constructively and demonstrating “good faith,” she added.
Georgieva also said the IMF is working closely with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank to provide coordinated support for Venezuela that increases its impact.
News of the IMF’s re-engagement with Venezuela, which followed the ousting of the country’s former president, Nicolas Maduro, by the U.S. in January, sent prices of Venezuela’s sovereign bonds and those of its state-owned oil company higher on Friday.
Venezuela’s 2023 note rose 4.1 cents to 51.25 cents on the dollar, the highest price since 2017, while PDVSA’s 2021 note added 2.9 cents to 47 cents.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Paul Simao)
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