Washington, 1 October 1996 (RFE/RL) -- Bulgarian Minister of Finance Dimitar Kostov and other finance officials met early today with World Bank President James Wolfensohn for discussions on Bulgaria's economic difficulties.
Kostov and others have been in meetings in Washington all week with senior officials and experts at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank over ways Sofia can get its reform program back on track.
Bulgaria has been unable to draw the second traunch of an IMF stand-by loan because the state of the country's banking system and other problems prevented it from passing a review. Any future World Bank loans must await a resolution of the IMF difficulties.
Bulgarian officials have said they are optimistic the problems are being worked out and that lending may be resumed. But bank and fund officials are declining all comment on progress of the talks.