Description: SHOTLIST RECENT - WASHINGTON DC 1. Wide shots, IMF building exterior April 14, 2023, WASHINGTON DC 2. SOUNDBITE (English) Abebe Aemro Selassie, Director of the African Department, IMF “I wish I was bearing better news, but unfortunately, we're expecting growth to decelerate from 3.9% to 3.6% in 2023. And this to a large extent reflects the big funding squeeze tied to drying up of aid and access to private finance” 3. Wide shot, Abebe Aemro Selassie speaking 4. SOUNDBITE (English) Abebe Aemro Selassie, Director of the African Department, IMF “So, there are a number of reforms that need to be pursued. I think first and foremost, of course, is policies to strengthen the resilience of economies. So, many countries, for example, there's a big challenge on mobilizing more domestic revenues. That needs to be addressed wherever that's the main challenge. Second, I think it's also important to consider policies to insulate domestic economies from external environment. So, allowing exchange rates to adjust, interest rates to be recalibrated, to reflect better to reduce inflation are all going to be very important part of the policy response to this adverse external environment,” 5. Wide shot, Abebe Aemro Selassie speaking 6. SOUNDBITE (English) Abebe Aemro Selassie, Director of the African Department, IMF “We are engaging like never before with the region. Of course, over the last couple of years, we've provided considerable financing to the tune of around $50 billion to support the region. Whether the very difficult economic environment that was facing and we continue to try and provide as much financing as possible to support countries in the coming months. As important, however, of course, are policies and reforms that needs to be pursued by countries, and we are deeply engaged with working with countries to navigate and to put in place the right types of policies in each individual country” RECENT – Washington, DC