Niger: IMF approves $71 million payout
Niger will receive new IMF loans to implement reforms aimed at reducing risks to future balance of payments stability and resolving its long-standing balance of payments concerns.
The IMF’s Executive Board concluded the Fourth and Fifth Reviews of Niger’s economic and financial program, which were supported by the Extended Credit Facility arrangement (ECF), as well as the First Review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility arrangement (RSF).
The conclusion of the reviews allowed for the immediate disbursement of SDR 19.74 million (approximately US$ 26 million) under the ECF, increasing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 157.92 million (approximately US$ 210 million), and SDR 34.216 million (about US$ 45 million) under the RSF.
Niger’s ECF was authorized on December 8, 2021, followed by the RSF in July 2023. The two agreements were extended by six months, until December 2025, to allow enough time to execute crucial changes and support the government’s fiscal reduction efforts.
Program implementation was largely on schedule by late June 2023, but was hampered by the country’s political turmoil, which resulted in “the accumulation of external and domestic debt service arrears.”
• RFI – IMF.
