Abel gives IMF and World Bank the lowdown on PNG

DEPUTY Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel is in Washington attending a meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as a member of the board of governors of both banks.
He gave officials of both banks an economic update, including the impacts of the earthquake.
He said the 2018 budget incorporated US$100 million (K319.611m) in budget support funding plus other sectoral programme funding in transport, energy, rural empowerment, youth and tourism.
He said the World Bank had offered to increase the budget to US$150 million (K479.416m) because of the earthquake.
He had requested technical support from the IMF for the Bank of PNG to develop a medium-term (five-year) monetary policy.
He also discussed with the US State Department regional matters and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting being hosted by PNG this year.