Agencies

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Membership

The Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan) became a member of the International Monetary Fund on May 8, 1992, with an initial quota of SDR 43 million (about US$59 million). In 1995 Kyrgyzstan’s quota was increased to SDR 64.5 million (about US$96 million) and in 1999 to SDR 88.8 million (about US$115 million).
The Kyrgyz Republic accepted the obligations of Article VIII of the IMF Articles of Agreement in March 1995. Under these obligations the Kyrgyz Republic undertakes to refrain from imposing exchange rate 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 Kyrgyz Republic’s Governor for the IMF is the Chairperson of the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic.

MF Lending

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the IMF has actively supported the ongoing transition to a market economy in all of the former Soviet Union (FSU) countries. The Kyrgyz Republic has received financial support under a number of different facilities. The IMF financial arrangements with the Kyrgyz Republic are available from the following website: http://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/tad/extarr2.aspx?memberKey1=565&date1key=2013-01-31    

IMF loans are meant to help member countries tackle balance of payments problems, stabilize their economies, and restore sustainable economic growth. In 2009, the IMF upgraded its support for low-income countries, reflecting the changing nature of economic conditions in these countries and their increased vulnerabilities due to the effects of the global economic crisis. It has overhauled its lending instruments, especially to address more directly countries' needs for short-term and emergency support. To make its financial support more flexible and tailored to the diversity of low-income countries, the IMF has established a Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust, which has three lending windows, all under highly concessional terms. The following windows became effective in January 2010: the Extended Credit Facility, the Standby Credit Facility, and the Rapid Credit Facility. All these facilities allow for significantly higher access to financing and offer more concessional terms than previously. Low-income countries, including the Kyrgyz Republic, will receive exceptional forgiveness through end-2014 on all interest payments due to the IMF under its concessional lending instruments.

IMF Technical Assistance

Technical assistance is a key aspect of the IMF’s support for the government’s reform agenda. In the initial years after independence, long-term technical advisors made an important contribution to improving the quality of statistics, the tax system, and central banking. Their efforts were supplemented by a number of short-term technical assistance missions from headquarters in Washington. In recent years, the Fund’s technical assistance has been mostly directed to strengthening the banking system and the central bank’s independence, improving the tax administration and assisting to reform the public financial management system. Thus, Fund technical assistance has complemented the focus of the economic programs agreed between the government and the Fund. The Fund also actively supports capacity building in the Kyrgyz Republic through training courses for government officials, parliamentarians, and for members of the press, organized in Washington D.C., USA and Vienna, Austria, as well as in regional training courses. These courses are aimed at exposing participants to the best practice techniques in the areas of macroeconomic analysis, fiscal and financial analysis, and the compilation of statistics.

IMF Resident Representative Office

The IMF has maintained a presence in the Kyrgyz Republic since September 1992, at which time its Resident Representative office was established. The role of the office is to foster good working relations between the Kyrgyz authorities and the IMF, to monitor and analyze economic and political developments in the Kyrgyz Republic, assist the authorities in implementing macroeconomic and structural reform measures consistent with IMF-supported programs, and to support the implementation of IMF technical assistance. The Resident Representative office is also engaged in maintaining close contacts with multilateral institutions and bilateral donors to facilitate coordination of policy advice and technical assistance. The resident representative semi-annually presents the findings of the regional economic outlook prepared by the IMF staff to media, donor and business community, and the students in different universities.

For details of IMF programs and activities worldwide, please visit its central website at http://www.imf.org
For the IMF information on the Kyrgyz Republic please visit http://www.imf.org/external/country/KGZ/index.htm