The IMF Executive Board approved the disbursement of $278.2 million to Côte d'Ivoire under the three-year CEF/MEDC arrangements with côte d'Ivoire. A total of $1.2 billion will be disbursed by the institution under these programs approved in 2016.

Côte d'Ivoire will receive $278.2 million in financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This was announced by the institution in a press release published on December 9, 2020.

According to the institution, this disbursement follows the good performance recorded by Côte d'Ivoire as part of the reform program led by the IMF. At the end of the seventh and eighth reviews of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) agreement and the Extended Credit Facility (EFF), the Fund's experts noted a "rigorous" response by the Ivorian State to the covid-19 pandemic, thanks to "strong pre-crisis macroeconomic gains, relative economic diversification, and fiscal position easing at the right time."

"Côte d'Ivoire has withstood the immediate consequences of the pandemic reasonably well, buoyed by its proven track record of sound macroeconomic policies, its rapid response to COVID-19, and the government's substantial support to the most affected economic actors and populations," said Mitsuhiro Furusawa (photo), Deputy Managing Director of the IMF.

He added: "The performance of the IMF-supported program was satisfactory until the end of 2019, but several program objectives were not achieved by the end of June 2020, due to the response to the pandemic. Under the assumption of a gradual normalization of the global economy, growth is projected to return to its medium-term trend in 2021, with substantial downside risks."

Thus, the new financing will bring to $1.2 billion the total disbursements made under the three-year arrangements approved by the IMF on December 12, 2016 and extended by one year in 2019.

As a reminder, Côte d'Ivoire is one of the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa that is expected to maintain positive growth in 2020. This is expected by the IMF at 1.8%.