IMF says will meet with Libyan leaders 'shortly'
WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund said Thursday it was planning to meet with Libya's new leaders soon to determine the financing needs of the war-torn country.
"There will be a meeting with the authorities shortly. I don't have a specific date but it will be soon," IMF spokesman David Hawley said at a regularly scheduled news conference.
The spokesman did not say where the meeting would take place.
"The areas that we're discussing with the authorities are preparation of a macroeconomic framework, assessment of the public financial management capacity, estimation of financing needs, and assistance we might provide in restoring the central bank's payment system and operations," he said.
The IMF estimates that Libya's gross domestic product -- the oil-rich nation's output of goods and services -- has been slashed by more than half this year amid an uprising that ousted strongman Moamer Kadhafi last month.
The new regime estimates normal oil production will resume by end-2012. According to the national oil company NOC, current output is 530,000 barrels a day, compared with 1.7 million before the conflict began in February.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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