(Ecofin Agency) - The International Monetary Fund announced the disbursement of $278.2 million as part of the Extended Credit Facility and Extended Fund Facility arrangements with Côte d'Ivoire.

In an official Dec 9 statement, the institution said this disbursement follows Côte d'Ivoire's good performance under the IMF-led reform program. Following the seventh and eighth reviews of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), Fund experts noted a rigorous response by the Ivorian government to the covid-19 pandemic, thanks to "strong pre-crisis fundamentals, relative economic diversification, and timely relaxing of the fiscal stance.”

“A strong record of sound macroeconomic policies, a swift COVID response, and substantive government support to the most impacted have helped Côte d’Ivoire in weathering the immediate consequences of the pandemic reasonably well,” said IMF deputy MD Mitsuhiro Furusawa (pictured).

“Performance under the Fund-supported program was satisfactory through end-2019 although several program targets were missed at end-June 2020 due to the pandemic response. Provided global economic conditions gradually normalize, growth is projected to revert to its medium-term trend in 2021, but with substantial downside risks,” he added.

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

As a reminder, Côte d'Ivoire is one of the few sub-Saharan African countries expected to maintain positive growth in 2020. IMF expects the Ivorian growth to be 1.8%.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou