The International Monetary Fund has announced immediate debt relief for 25 poor countries to help them free up funds to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
“Today, I am pleased to say that our Executive Board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This 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,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement.
Liberia with more than 59 confirmed cases of the deadly COVID-19 is among the 25 poor countries to benefit from this relief package, an IMF release said on Tuesday April 14, 2020 morning.
The debt relief will be funded by the IMF’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust, which was first set up to combat the West Africa Ebola outbreak in 2015 and has been repurposed to help countries fend off Covid-19.
The fund currently has $500m, with Japan, Britain, China and the Netherlands among its main contributors.
“I urge other donors to help us replenish the trust’s resources and boost further our ability to provide additional debt service relief for a full two years to our poorest member countries,” Ms Georgieva said.
The IMF has also approved $1bn in emergency funding for Ghana and $442m for Senegal to enable both countries to respond to the rapidly-spreading coronavirus pandemic.
The IMF and the World Bank have called for rich nations to stop collecting debt payments from poor countries from 1 May until June 2021.
Last week, the World Bank said it would roll out $160bn in emergency aid over 15 months to help countries stricken by the virus, including $14bn in debt repayments from 76 poor countries to other governments.
The countries that will receive debt service relief today 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, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo, and Yemen
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