(Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund approved a three-year extended credit facility worth $570 million for Chad, the Fund said on Friday, capping a process that required Chad to restructure all its official and commercial debt.
The approval allows the IMF to immediately disburse more than $78 million, the lender said in a statement.
The IMF had conditioned any new agreement with Chad on a restructuring of all its debt. Reuters reported last month https://www.reuters.com/business/glencore-assurances-chad-pave-way-imf-lending-program-sources-2021-11-11 that Glencore, Chad’s largest private creditor, had offered assurances over the restructuring of about $1 billion in commercial debt.
“The Chadian economy continues to face significant humanitarian and social demands,” said Kenji Okamura, the IMF’s deputy managing director. He cited an expected increase in food insecurity and poverty, while a growing number of refugees fleeing social conflicts in neighboring countries complicates the humanitarian situation.
The Fund said restoring Chad’s debt sustainability relies on a “multi-year fiscal consolidation program, significant donor support, and deep debt restructuring under the G20 Common Framework.”
In January, Chad was the first country to request a restructuring under new rules agreed last year by the G20 and the Paris Club of lenders.
China, France, India and Saudi Arabia, Chad’s official creditor committee, agreed in June to a restructuring under the G20 Common Framework.
Chad had restructured its debt twice, in 2015 and 2018.
(Reporting by Aaron Ross in Dakar and Rodrigo Campos in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Edmund Klamann)
