IMF approves immediate debt relief for 25 countries including Afghanistan

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved immediate debt relief for 25 countries – including Afghanistan – aimed to help these countries to fight the COVID-19 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,” Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director said.

She added that the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) can currently 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.

“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,” Kristalina noted.

“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,” the IMF’s managing director added.

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.

It comes as the total cases of the novel Coronavirus hike to 1,934,125 with 120,437 deaths and 456,589 recoveries worldwide.