<p><a href="/en/afganistan/kabul" class="glossify-link">KABUL</a> (Pajhwok): Acting Minister of Finance Mohammad Humayon Qayoumi and IMF technical team led by Christoph Duenwald discussed completion of the fund’s 5th review under ECF arrangement in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, a statement said on Tuesday</p>
<p>The Ministry of Finance statement said the IMF executive board commended the Afghan government indicators in areas of economic reforms, management and financial sector reforms, GDP growth, prudent macroeconomic management and achieving progress under challenging circumstances and industrial sector’s performance.</p>
<p>The IMF mission is going to share its report with IMF executive board in late May 2019 and will provide more than $ 6 million incentive fund to Government of <a href="/en/afghanistan" class="glossify-link">Afghanistan</a> for its financial and economic reform efforts. By receiving that, the total incentive fund of government will be $ 27 million.</p>
<p>The IMF team visited Dubai during March 13–20 for discussions on the fifth review of Afghanistan’s economic program supported by a three-and-a-half-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement, the fund’s communications department said on its website.</p>
<p>At the end of the mission, Duenwald in a statement said: “Following productive discussions, the IMF team and the Afghan authorities reached staff-level agreement on the completion of the fifth review under the ECF arrangement.”</p>
<p>He said the agreement was subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board, which was expected to consider the staff report for the fifth ECF review in late May 2019.</p>
<p>Upon completion of this review, SDR 4.5 million (about US$ 6.1 million) will be made available to Afghanistan, bringing total disbursements to SDR 27 million.</p>
<p> “Afghanistan’s GDP growth for 2018 is estimated at 2.7 percent, slightly above earlier staff estimates, as the industrial sector’s performance more than compensated for the drought-related weakness in <a href="/en/agriculture" class="glossify-link">agriculture</a>.”</p>
<p>He said growth was projected to pick up to 3 percent in 2019 as agricultural production recovered and inflation was expected to average 1.8 percent in 2019.</p>
<p>“Donor grants continue to finance large budget and trade deficits, allowing treasury cash balances and international reserves to remain at comfortable levels.”</p>
<p>pk/ma</p>
