India may not need future IMF aid -- Reddy
REUTERS

MUMBAI, MAR 18: India may not require assistance in future from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if it continues to follow sound monetary policies that ensure efficiency and stability, a senior central bank official said.

"If the macro-economic policies continue to be sound to ensure progress in desirable directions of efficiency and stability, I believe there will be no need for us to approach Fund for any assistance," Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Y V Reddy said in a lecture delivered on Saturday in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Reddy said India's outstanding liabilities to the IBRD at the end of March 1999 were about $8.1 billion of which about $2.1 billion was to non-government sectors. Liabilities to both IBRD and IDA at the end of March 1999 was about $26.4 billion.

"India experienced a negative transfer of funds to the World Bank group during 1993-98," Reddy said. He said gross disbursements of about $9.7 billion by both IDA and IBRD were made during those years, repayments of principal and interest amounted to $6.2 billion and $4.9 billion respectively, Reddy said. There was a negative resource transfer of about $ 1.4 billion during 1993-98, he added.

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