OREANDA-NEWS. June 24, 2015. Ms. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), made the following statement today in Luxembourg:

“It is a great pleasure to be in Luxembourg. In addition to participating in the Eurogroup meeting yesterday, I had the privilege of an audience with His Highness The Grand Duke Henri as well as meetings with Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, Minister of Finance Pierre Gramegna, Central Bank Governor Gaston Reinesch, and their colleagues.

“I expressed deep appreciation for the generous contributions made by Luxembourg to the IMF’s capacity building efforts, which have enable us to provide technical assistance and training in Central America and West Africa in such areas as statistics, tax and customs administration, public financial management, and financial sector regulation and supervision.

“We discussed the main themes of Luxembourg’s upcoming Presidency of the EU Council and the outlook for the euro area. We also discussed Luxembourg’s economic model, which emphasizes fiscal stability, openness, firm prudential oversight, and responsiveness to investor needs and has delivered strong growth. In that context, we discussed some of the important challenges going forward. These include: the evolving international tax transparency standards, in which Luxembourg is participating fully; the importance of maintaining a strong financial regulatory and supervisory reputation, which is central to attracting international business; and the impact of population aging on the pension system.

“I would like to thank the authorities and the Luxembourg people for their gracious hospitality.”