IMF: We are officially communicating with Syria and are ready to support it

Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund, confirmed the existence of official communication between the Syrian government and the Fund, and indicated the Fund’s readiness to support Syria.

In an interview with Jordanian television channel Al Mamlaka, published today, Azour noted Syria’s participation in the International Monetary Fund meetings for the first time in two decades.

He revealed official communication between the Syrian government and the Fund, including several meetings in which Damascus “submitted a request to revive its relations” with the fund and reactivate its membership, “which was not officially frozen, but was almost inactive during the war that began in 2011.”

Azour affirmed the Fund’s readiness to support Syria and all member states, explaining that the absence of economic data on Syria in the Fund’s latest report “is due to the unavailability of official figures from the Syrian authorities due to the war and their lack of the technical capabilities necessary to compile statistics over the past years.”

Azour noted that the IMF’s recent spring meetings in Washington included a high-level session to discuss the Syrian situation, current challenges, and ways to enhance cooperation with Damascus in the coming period.