YEREVAN, March 29. /ARKA/. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team led by Mr. Hossein Samiei visited Yerevan on March 14–28 to conduct initial discussions on a possible new IMF arrangement with Armenia, the press office of the IMF Mission in Armenia reported on Thursday.

At the conclusion of the visit, Mr. Samiei said in his statement that the staff team welcomes the government’s intention to implement a comprehensive reform agenda, supported by the 2017-22 development program.

This agenda appropriately aims at promoting higher and more inclusive growth. A possible new IMF-supported arrangement would assist the government in achieving Armenia’s vision to become a diversified middle-income economy.

“We held productive discussions on policies and actions for the rest of 2018 and the medium term. Good progress was made in identifying reform priorities and policies to maintain macroeconomic and fiscal stability. The discussions will continue over the coming months,” Samiei said.

“During the visit, the team met with Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielyan, Minister of Finance Vardan Aramyan, Central Bank Governor Arthur Javadyan, Minister of Economic Development and Investment Suren Karayan, State Revenue Committee Chairman Vardan Harutyunyan, as well as other senior government officials, representatives of civil society, the private sector, and the international community. The team would like to thank the authorities for their cooperation and hospitality.” --0----