The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved Senegal’s request for a credit extension until Jan. 10, 2023, to allow for completion of credit and policy reviews, the fund said in a statement on Thursday, reported The Investing.
The request, approved on Nov. 15, is connected to an 18-month Stand-By Arrangement and Arrangement Under the Standby Credit Facility (SBA/SCF). Approved in June 2021, the SBA/SCF offered special drawing rights (SDR) access of 453 million. In June 2022, the facility approved an additional access of SDR 129.44 million.
“Completion of the reviews will enable the Senegalese authorities to have access to funds available under the SBA/SCF,” the IMF board said.
The extension was granted one day before an IMF staff mission to Senegal concluded that the country had made significant progress in implementing structural reforms despite these being slower than anticipated.
In a statement, Edward Gemayel, leader of the IMF mission to Senegal, said performance of the reform program was broadly satisfactory and that the country’s economy is expected to rebound in 2023 with a strong pickup in growth to 8.3% supported by a temporary boost from oil and gas production and absent further escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war.
He added that delays in payments of a cash transfer scheme for the poorest households should be addressed urgently, and that it is important for authorities to “convincingly commit” to start phasing out energy subsidies in 2023 and unwind them by 2025.
In related news, the IMF has also granted Malawi a waiver after it misreported its international reserves, helping clear the way for new lending.
In a statement, the international monetary organization said that at the time of the first and combined second and third reviews of a three-year extended credit facility approved in 2018, Malawi had overstated its reserves for end-June and end-December 2018, and end-June 2019.
