From the Executive Board

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Page 282

Mozambique: ESAF

The IMF has approved the third annual loan for Mozambique under the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) in an amount equivalent to SDR 25.2 million (about $33 million) to support the government's economic program for 1998/99. The loan will be disbursed in two equal semiannual installments, the first of which is available on September 1, 1998.

1998/99 Program

Mozambique's medium- and long-term goals are to create the conditions for poverty-reducing sustainable economic growth while lowering the country's dependence on external aid. The government's medium-term strategy is to capitalize on gains achieved in both macro-economic stabilization and economic liberalization to encourage rapid private sector expansion.

The program for 1998/99 aims at a real GDP growth (excluding large projects) of about 7 percent in 1998 and 1999, an end-period inflation of 6-8 percent in 1998 and 1999, and the maintenance of net international reserves at about three to four months of projected imports. Structural Reforms

The authorities' program of structural reforms seeks to remove impediments to economic growth and stabilization that remain, despite progress achieved in economic reform and liberalization in the past decade. The program focuses on increasing private investment through the privatization of state enterprises and elimination of administrative barriers to trade and investment, improving public sector saving by strengthening tax administration and widening the tax base, and...

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