Prime minister consults on finances in France

Central African Republic (CAR) Prime Minister Martin Ziguele met with French Minister for International Cooperation and Francophone Affairs, Charles Josselin, and French Development Agency (AFD) Director General Jean Michel Severino in Paris on Wednesday to discuss possibilities of French financial support of the country's economy, devastated in the wake of a failed coup in May, PANA reported. Speaking at a news conference at the end of a series of meetings with high-level French officials, Ziguele said an interim programme was expected to improve the nation's economic performance. However, owing to its indebtedness, CAR would have to wait until December 2002 to qualify for relief under the World Bank's Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Ziguele said the coup attempt of 28 May worsened the current economic situation which had been compounded by the 1994 devaluation of its currency, the CFA franc. "It [the financial situation] is a question we are going to examine with the French minister of finance, but it must also be examined by international financial institutions and the IMF, World Bank, the African Development Bank [...] we are disposed towards re-launching and enhancing dialogue," Josselin was quoted by PANA as saying. In response to a question about CAR civil servants being without salaries for two years, Ziguele said arrangements were underway to pay them in installments. He dismissed suggestions that mismanagement of the country's resources and poor governance were behind the current crisis facing the country.