RUSSIA RECEIVES ANOTHER TRANCHE OF IMF STAND-BY LOAN.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has provided Russia with 359.4 million Special Drawing Rights (SDR), or over $530 million at the current exchange rate, as the seventh tranche of a stand-by loan. Thomas Wolf, head of the IMF permanent mission in Moscow, said that the IMF Board of Directors decided to provide the next tranche of the $6.4 billion loan on the basis of a positive monthly report by the IMF Mission on the Financial and Economic Situation in Russia. (10)

The terms of the stand-by loan are soft: 7 percent a year, after a three-year grace period, conditioned upon a consistent government policy of tight money, low monthly inflation, and liberalized trade. Last month, an IMF team began talks with the government on possible granting of an Extended Fund Facility of up to $18 billion over three years. The government appears to be pursuing this loan so that it can restructure its huge foreign debt.

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