S. Sudan: IMF releases $174m for urgent balance of payments need

March 30, 2021 (WASHINGTON) – The International Monetary Fund said it had released $174.2 million to South Sudan under its Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) for urgent balance of payments needs.

“The pandemic-related oil price shock and devastating floods have led to an economic downturn. The … downturn widened the fiscal and the balance of payments deficits, opening large financing gaps in the absence of concessional financing,” IMF said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It expected the economy would contract 4.2% in the 2020/21 fiscal year,” it added.

In November last year, the IMF’s Executive Board approved a disbursement of $52.3 million to South Sudan under the RCF.

This was the first time the IMF was giving the world’s newest nation financial assistance since it joined the institution in 2012 shortly after its independence.

The loan, IMF said, was granted after the Bank of South Sudan implemented its recommendations to record all oil exports and transactions under the Transitional Financial Agreement.

According to South Sudan’s IMF report on external sector statistics mission published in January 2020, there was a need for essential economic policy-making by the authorities to meet the data needs of key stakeholders to assess the country’s external sector developments.

(ST)