MONROVIA, LIBERIA-The Liberian Government has announced the approval of over twenty-three-million United States Dollars by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The government said the immediate disbursement of the money is under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF), which the Country acceded to in 2019.
A ministry of Information release issued Thursday, November 25, 2021, said the four year program grants Liberia access to two-hundred-fourteen-million for which the latest amount is a trench for passing the established performance benchmarks.
Following the completion of the Third Review of the ECF, the IMF Acting Chair, Bo Li, announced that the Liberian economy is on track to ‘rebound’ strongly next year, despite the setback from the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said: “The medium-term outlook is favorable, and the Liberian Authorities are committed to the steadfast implementation of macroeconomic stabilization and structural reform program.”
He said the Government intends to use the money to “strengthen its reserve position, increase spending on the vaccination program, support high-quality development projects and retire expensive debt”.
Meanwhile, the IMF has said while the Liberian Economy contracted by three per cent in 2020, growth is projected at 3.6 for 2021.
The IMF said fiscal deficit is declining further to 2.4 percent of GDP, and inflation reaching single digits”.
According to the release, this position aligns with the World Bank’s Economic Update on Liberia, which was release earlier this week.
In the report, the Bank credited the Government’s macroeconomic policy decisions for bringing down inflation and ensuring the growth of the economy.
At the same time, World Bank Country Manager, Dr. Kwhima Nthara, said:” The Government must be commended for making tough policy choices that have resulted in this positive turnaround in macroeconomic fundamentals, especially under a challenging COVID-19 environment.”
Dr. Nthara said both institutions have admonished the government to create more fiscal space to finance the Country’s infrastructure needs, while it implements a structural reform agenda.
According to him, fiscal reform should focus on containing wage bill, enhancing domestic revenue mobilization, improving the quality of public spending and operationalizing a Treasury Single Account.
