The International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board has approved the disbursement of $488 million to Angola, just four months after the Fund increased the loan size by almost a quarter to $4.5 billion, to help Angola survive the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The three-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF), which began in 2018, intends to overhaul the country’s economy with reforms to reduce its dependence on oil and lower its debt burden.
Last year, a sharp decline in crude prices, stemming from the pandemic, forced Angola to seek debt relief worth $6.2 billion from three key creditors, easing fears of a default in one of Africa’s most indebted countries.
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Angola also secured a temporary waiver of $1.78 billion in bilateral debt-service payments from the Group of 20 leading economies.
The Fund, in October forecast Angola’s gross domestic product to grow by 3.2% in 2021, after contracting for five straight years.
Chinese creditors have already granted Angola a three-year debt relief, which will enable the country to get more than $700 million in its next tranche of IMF (International Monetary Fund) financing in the coming days, according to the finance minister Vera Daves.
The $700 million forms part of a $3.7 billion programme under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility approved in December 2018.