THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board has approved an immediate debt service relief to 25 member countries as part of measures to alleviate the devastating economic impact of the deadly Coronavirus.<\/p>\n
Developing economies including African countries are already feeling the heat as Covid-19 continues to spread across the globe amid rising death toll and crippling effect on trade, as countries enforce lockdown measures.<\/p>\n
IMF managing director, Ms Kristalina Georgieva, announced the historic debt relief decision in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n
However, Zimbabwe is not in the list of beneficiary countries having cleared it\u2019s US$108 million arrears in 2016 and is now working on clearing about USD$2.2bn owed to the World Bank and African Develolopment Bank.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, I am pleased to say that our executive board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF\u2019s member countries under the IMF\u2019s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the Fund\u2019s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next six months and will help them channel more of their scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Georgieva said the CCRT would in the meantime provide about US$500 million in grant-based debt service relief, including the recent US$185 million pledge by the U.K. and US$100 million provided by Japan as immediately available resources.<\/p>\n
Others, including China and the Netherlands, are also stepping forward with important contributions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI urge other donors to help us replenish the Trust\u2019s resources and boost further our ability to provide additional debt service relief for a full two years to our poorest member countries,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
According to the statement the countries that will receive debt service relief \u201ctoday\u201d are: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, D.R., The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo, and Yemen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board has approved an immediate debt service relief to 25 member countries as part of measures to alleviate the devastating economic impact of the deadly Coronavirus. Developing economies including African countries are already feeling the heat as Covid-19 continues to spread across the globe amid rising death toll and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[239,672],"class_list":{"0":"post-21993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-economy","9":"tag-economic-chaos","10":"tag-imf"},"yoast_head":"\n