YEREVAN, December 16. /ARKA/. Mark Horton, newly appointed head of IMF mission in Armenia, and Guillermo Tolosa, IMF resident representative in Armenia met with Tigran Sargsyan, Armenian prime minister, in Yerevan on Wednesday.

At their meeting with the Armenian premier, Horton and Tolosa confirmed International Monetary Fund’s willingness to support implementation of governmental programs in Armenia, the government’s press office reports.

Sargsyan expressed appreciation of IMF’s cooperation with Armenia and thanked the Fund’s mission for effective work.

Issued related to the three-year program of long-term financing and crediting were discussed at the meeting.

The premier and the IMF representatives also discussed development of Armenia’s economy, tax policy, inflation-related problems and prospects for economic development.

Earlier, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed its first review of Armenia’s economic performance under a program supported by the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the Extended Credit Facility arrangement (ECF).

The Board's decision was taken on a lapse of time basis. This is a simplified procedure without formal discussion.

“The decision enables the authorities to draw an additional SDR 39.0 million (US$57.6 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to an amount equivalent to SDR 78.1 million (US$115.2 million),” the IMF reported on its official website.

The three-year SDR 266.8 million (about US$393.9 million) EFF and ECF arrangement with Armenia was approved by the IMF’s Executive Board on June 28, 2010.

The IMF also released results of the regular annual review of Armenian economy. The IMF experts think that the economy is now recovering though slowly. GDP growth in Armenia was projected at 4% for 2010 and 4.6% for 2011. The benchmark was lowered because of 14.2% decline amid the crisis in 2009.

On March 29, the IMF Board completed its third review of Armenia’s economic performance under a program supported by a Stand-By Arrangement.

The decision enables the immediate release of an amount equivalent to SDR 48.485 million (about US$73.6 million), bringing total disbursements so far an amount equivalent to SDR 350.425 million (about US$532.2 million). -0-