President Moreno seeks IMF’s Financing Instrument to cushion COVID-19 effects

&NewLine;<p><strong>Ms&period; Kristalina Georgieva&comma; Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund &lpar;IMF&rpar; &comma; in this statement made available to OpenLife&comma; explains the rationale behind  President Lenin Moreno’s quest to access the Fund’s Rapid Financing Instrument &lpar;RFI&rpar; to protect the economy of Ecuador<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Like many other&NewLine;countries&comma; Ecuador’s economic challenges have been compounded by the&NewLine;devastating effects of the COVID-19 outbreak and the sharp fall in world oil&NewLine;prices&period; President Lenin Moreno and his government have responded quickly and&NewLine;decisively to help protect Ecuadorians from the impact of these rapidly&NewLine;evolving global developments&comma; by putting in place a series of measures to&NewLine;stabilize the economy and prevent the further spread of the virus&period;&nbsp&semi;In the&NewLine;context of adverse global developments&comma; Ecuador is facing severe financing&NewLine;constraints and will require the support of all its stakeholders&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In light of urgent&NewLine;need to quickly step up action to protect people and the economy&comma; the&NewLine;Government of Ecuador expressed its intention to seek our financial support&NewLine;through the Fund’s Rapid Financing&nbsp&semi;Instrument &lpar;RFI&rpar;&period; This emergency&NewLine;financial tool will allow the government to address urgent balance of payments&NewLine;needs and will support policies that would make it possible to direct funds&NewLine;swiftly to Ecuador’s most affected sectors&comma; including the healthcare system and&NewLine;social protection&comma; to bolster its response to COVID-19&period; Our team is working&NewLine;expeditiously to respond to this request so that a proposal can be considered&NewLine;by the IMF’s Executive Board&period; &nbsp&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In parallel&comma; my&NewLine;staff is immediately engaging with the authorities on a successor&NewLine;Fund-supported arrangement that builds on the current Extended Fund&NewLine;Facility&nbsp&semi;&lpar;EFF&rpar;&comma; to bolster Ecuador’s economic performance&comma; strengthen the&NewLine;foundations of dollarization&comma; and deliver broad based benefits for all&NewLine;Ecuadorians&comma; especially the most vulnerable part of the population&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our objective is&NewLine;to provide immediate support to help Ecuador address the effects of a mounting&NewLine;global health crisis&comma; while continuing to support the authorities’ unwavering&NewLine;commitment to implement much-needed economic and structural reforms aimed at&NewLine;fostering strong&comma; sustainable and inclusive growth&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;