(Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday it had authorised the immediate disbursement to Gabon of $155.29 million under its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme for the oil-producing Central African country.
The programme was approved by the IMF board in July 2021 to help Gabon respond to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and to support the government’s economic and financial reforms.
The latest disbursement will bring the total drawn by Gabon under the facility to $263.63 million, the IMF said after its executive board completed the first and second reviews of the programme.
The Fund said implementation had been mixed amid pandemic-related disruptions.
“A nascent economic recovery is underway, and the medium-term outlook is broadly positive amidst higher oil prices, but it remains subject to considerable uncertainty,” it said in a statement.
“The war in Ukraine will affect the economy through higher food and fuel prices.”
Gabon’s economy shrank by 1.9% in 2020 and growth recovered to an estimated 1.5% in 2021, the IMF said.
(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Jon Boyle and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
