RP may ask for IMF waiver

RP may ask for IMF waiver

MANILA (AFP): The Philippine government may ask a International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to waive fiscal targets earlier agreed upon due to low revenue collection, sources said here yesterday.

The request will come when government negotiators meet with the IMF mission arriving this week, the sources who are close to the government panel said.

The sources did not say which specific targets would be discussed but said it would be related to the previous projection of a 40 billion peso (US$930 million) budget deficit for this year.

This is a sharp reversal from the five billion peso surplus originally projected for 1998.

In the past week, economic officials have publicly feuded with IMF resident representative, Henri Lorie who has questioned Manila's ability to attain a 2 to 3 percent gross national product (GNP) expansion this year.