IMF mission led by Thomsen arrives in Moscow Feb 9

An International Monetary Fund mission led by Poul Thomsen, senior IMF representative to Russia, will arrive for a one-week visit to Moscow on February 9, chief of the permanent IMF offices in the country Neven Mates told Interfax. The IMF experts are coming to update the Fund's data on Russia's main macroeconomic indicators ahead of the annual IMF mission visit, Mates said. "Mr. Thomsen will arrive on Thursday [February 10] for five days," he said. The IMF group is expected to meet with representatives from the Central Bank, Finance Ministry, Economic Development and Trade Ministry and other institutions, he said, but a finalized meeting schedule has yet to be put together. The IMF usually sends a mission to member-countries every year to prepare reviews of their economic condition under Chapter IV of the IMF charter, Mates said. But the IMF also sends one other small group of analysts to some countries with significant weight in the world economy, to refresh the data on their economic development, he said.