{"id":117135,"date":"2021-04-04T10:13:20","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T02:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=117135"},"modified":"2021-04-04T10:13:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-04T02:13:22","slug":"imf-approves-2-34billion-package-for-kenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=117135","title":{"rendered":"IMF approves $2.34billion package for Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/africa.cgtn.com\/wp-content\/photo-gallery\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-12-15-at-9.50.39-AM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-147759\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong><em>Estimates show that Kenya faces US$2.6 billion in sovereign external debt<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WASHINGTON, April 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The International Monetary Fund on Friday said its board had approved new three-year financing arrangements for Kenya valued at $2.34 billion to help the African country continue responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and address its debt vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Approval of the new loans under the Fund\u2019s Extended Credit Facility and Extended Fund Facility will enable immediate disbursement of about $307.5 million that Kenya can use for budget support, adding to $739 million it received in emergency COVID-19 aid in May 2020, the Fund said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The IMF said Kenya\u2019s debt remained sustainable, but it was at high risk of debt distress, and authorities should focus their near-term agenda on urgent structural policy challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For nearly two years, Kenya has abandoned expensive commercial debt to cut back on ballooning repayments, while revenue collection has been squeezed by the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also faces huge budget deficits that have been deepened by the coronavirus crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe program supported by EFF\/ECF arrangements with the Fund provides a strong signal of support and confidence,\u201d IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette Sayeh said in a statement. \u201cThe Kenyan authorities have demonstrated strong commitment to fiscal reforms during this unprecedented global shock, and Kenya\u2019s medium-term prospects remain positive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kenya was hit hard at the onset by the COVID-19 pandemic, but its economy has been picking up after likely posting a slight contraction of 0.1% in 2020, the IMF said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It said it forecast a sharp swing to growth of 7.6% in 2021 and 5.7% in 2022, but said Kenya continued to face challenges in the return to durable growth, and its past gains in poverty reduction had been reversed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The COVID-19 shock had also exacerbated the country\u2019s pre-existing fiscal vulnerabilities, the IMF said, although Kenyan authorities had taken action to hold the fiscal deficit and debt ratios to 8.7 and 70.4% of GDP, respectively, this fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Support from a Group of 20 moratorium on debt service payments and development partners will help Kenya close its financing gap in 2021 along with financing from capital markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sayeh said Kenya was taking steps to reduce debt-related risks, but should continue to provide necessary support to the economy and focus on urgent structural policy challenges, including financial weaknesses in some state-owned enterprises. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Estimates show that Kenya faces US$2.6 billion in sovereign external debt WASHINGTON, April 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The International Monetary Fund on Friday said its board had approved new three-year financing arrangements for Kenya valued at $2.34 billion to help the African country continue responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and address its debt vulnerabilities. Approval of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":117136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117135"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/117136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}