BUSINESS

Extended Credit Facility: IMF approves $31.7m for Central African Republic

&NewLine;<p><strong> <&sol;strong>The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund &lpar;IMF&rpar; has completed the 6th and final review under the Extended Credit Facility&comma; ECF&comma; arrangement<a> <&sol;a>for the Central African Republic&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>ECF&NewLine;is &nbsp&semi;a lending arrangement that provides&NewLine;sustained program engagement over the medium to long term in case of protracted&NewLine;balance of payments problems&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The&NewLine;completion of the review enables a disbursement of SDR 22&period;84 million &lpar;about US&dollar;&NewLine;31&period;70 million&rpar;&comma; which will bring total disbursements under the arrangement to&NewLine;SDR 133&period;68 million &lpar;about US&dollar; 185&period;56 million&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In&NewLine;a release made available to OpenLife by IMF Media office&comma; the three-year ECF&NewLine;arrangement for the Central African Republic was approved by the IMF’s&NewLine;Executive Board on July 20&comma; 2016 for SDR 83&period;55 million&comma; about US&dollar;&NewLine;115&period;97&period;million and subsequently augmented twice to a total of SDR 133&period;68&NewLine;million &lpar;about US&dollar;185&period;56million&comma; 120 percent of the Central African Republic’s&NewLine;quota at the IMF&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>At&NewLine;the conclusion of the Board’s discussion&comma; Mr&period; Mitsuhiro Furusawa&comma; Deputy&NewLine;Managing Director and Acting Chair&comma; stated&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The&NewLine;Central African Republic’s performance under the ECF arrangement remains&NewLine;satisfactory despite a challenging security environment and difficult&NewLine;humanitarian conditions&period; Since its adoption in July 2016&comma; substantial progress&NewLine;has been achieved under the ECF arrangement&comma; including in stabilizing the&NewLine;economy&comma; reducing fiscal vulnerabilities&comma; and improving public financial&NewLine;management&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The&NewLine;recent peace agreement between the government and 14 armed groups could&NewLine;constitute a pivotal step toward ending the ongoing crisis&period; Emphasizing&NewLine;power-sharing&comma; its implementation should contribute to improving security and&NewLine;creating the conditions for sustained and inclusive growth&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The&NewLine;authorities remain committed to pursuing fiscal policy consistent with&NewLine;macroeconomic stability&period; The 2019 revised budget provides for the gradual&NewLine;allocation of additional grant financing to key government initiatives&comma;&NewLine;including the implementation of the peace agreement&comma; the strengthening of&NewLine;national security forces&comma; and the preparation of the 2020-21 elections&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Further&NewLine;efforts to strengthen domestic revenue mobilization&comma; which remains weak&comma; will&NewLine;be critical to sustainably financing these initiatives&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Structural&NewLine;reforms have progressed&comma; including with regard to the strengthening of the&NewLine;treasury single account&comma; streamlining of parafiscal taxes&comma; and improved budget&NewLine;transparency&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;Looking ahead&comma; structural fiscal reforms&NewLine;should continue—including to further reduce the use of exceptional payment&NewLine;procedures and comprehensively audit all potential domestic arrears—while being&NewLine;complemented by reforms to improve the business climate and governance&comma;&NewLine;including strengthening the AML&sol;CFT framework&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The&NewLine;Central African Republic’s program has been supported by the implementation of&NewLine;supportive policies and reforms by the regional institutions in the areas of&NewLine;foreign exchange regulations and monetary policy framework and to support an&NewLine;increase in regional net foreign assets&comma; which are critical to the program’s&NewLine;success&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Openlife Reporter

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