Lagarde’s evasive responses to prying journalists

The answers of the IMF boss to most of the questions asked her in Yaounde by journalists were interesting but not very precise. In a truly diplomatic fashion!
 By Essan-Ekoninyam in Yaounde
At the invitation of President Paul Biya, Christine Lagarde, the Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made a two-day official visit to Cameroon on 7 and 8 January 2016. After she was received by Prime Minister Philemon Yang, the IMF boss made declarations to the national and international press in Yaounde, which sounded diplomatic albeit interesting.
    Asked to say what concretely brought her to Cameroon, she said she came neither to negotiate a loan nor a programme for Cameroon to follow. Without being particularly specific as prying journalists would have loved her to be, she said:
“I am here to listen, to better understand and propose technical assistance and reinforcement of capacities that we always provide to our members.”
    She added that she was happy to visit Cameroon for the first time in her capacity as Director of the IMF. “It is a visit that I should have paid a long time ago, taking into consideration the Cameroonian economy in particular and that of the CEMAC zone in general.”

    In a posting on her facebook page before her tête-à-tête with President Biya, she said the audience would dwell on how to adjust to the low prices of fuel and maintain a vigorous growth.
    Even before she came to Yaounde, Mrs Lagarde had talked about the visit in question. She said Cameroon, with the largest and most diversified economy in the CEMAC sub-region, had to maintain and reinforce the dynamic of integration. She added that the country and the entire sub-region are facing the double shock of the fall of the prices of oil and security problems.
    “The reinforcement of regional integration,” she concluded, “and the putting in place of ambitious reform programmes in CEMAC countries will be determinant in ensuring macroeconomic stability and establish a powerful and inclusive growth in the region.”
    It should be noted that the IMF boss came to Cameroon from Nigeria where she sojourned between 4 and 7 January 2016. Here, Lagarde met not only President Mohammadu Buhari but also other high officials as well as business owners, women leaders and civil society representatives, almost in the same way as she did in Cameroon.
    Her overall objective of visiting Africa is to reinforce her organization’s partnership with the biggest economies in sub-Sahara Africa.