Press Release: IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato to Visit Brazil on January 10-11

January 5, 2006

Press Release No. 06/03
January 5, 2006

Mr. Rodrigo de Rato, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will visit Brazil on January 10-11, 2006, at the invitation of the President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva to mark the nation's early repayment of its outstanding obligations to the Fund.

On December 27, 2005, Brazil completed early repayment of its entire outstanding obligations amounting to SDR 10.79 billion (about US$15.57 billion). The outstanding obligations of Brazil had been contracted under three Stand-By Arrangements, the latest of which was approved by the Executive Board on September 6, 2002 and was extended and augmented on December 12, 2003 (see Press Releases No. 05/275, No. 02/40 and No. 03/217).

In Brasilia, Mr. de Rato will meet President Lula, Finance Minister Antonio Palocci and Central Bank of Brazil President Henrique Meirelles http://www.bcb.gov.br/pre/quemequem/port
/presidentes/henriqueMeirelles.asp?idpai=diretoria
.

Mr. de Rato previously visited Brazil as Managing Director in September 2004 (see Press Release No. 04/186). First Deputy Managing Director Anne O. Krueger also visited Brazil in December 2005 (see Press Release No. 05/264).

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