Washington, 2 May 1997 (RFE/RL) - A team of International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials is in Yerevan negotiating the 1997 program and targets for the second year of Armenia's three-year loan of around $139 million.
The loan, under the fund's special facility providing credits at subsidized interest rates to poorer countries, is designed to assist Armenia in its economic stabilization and structural reforms.
An IMF spokeswoman says Armenia drew the first two scheduled semi-annual tranches of the loan in 1996 -- about $46 million -- and is now working out its reform program and the specific targets for 1997. Interfax says the IMF team is to stay in Armenia for two weeks and meet several top officials.