Burma making progress on exchange rates: IMF
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Burma is making progress on its plans to unify the exchange rate regime and lift restrictions on current international payments and transfers.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s team completed a mission to Burma from October 19 to November 1. This was a move to accept Burma’s obligations under Article VIII, Sections 2(a), 3 and 4 of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement.
“IMF members accepting the obligations of Article VIII undertake to refrain from imposing exchange restrictions on the making of payments and transfers for current international transactions or from engaging in discriminatory currency arrangements or multiple currency practices without IMF approval,” the IMF’s team from the Monetary and Capital Markets, Legal, and Asia and Pacific Departments said in the statement issued on Thursday in Nay Pyi Taw.
The team met with government officials, banks, and public and private sector representatives to conduct an initial diagnostic assessment of the legal framework and actual market practices governing the exchange rate system of Burma and, in particular, the existing exchange restrictions and multiple currency practices.
It will continue its work with the authorities as they formulate their policies towards accepting the obligations of Article VIII. The team expects to visit Burma again for a follow up mission in early 2012.
