Benin will be provided $22 million by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a release published by the institution last week indicated.

This tranche which is part of the $154.2 million extended credit facility granted to the country in 2017 should help support the economic and financial reforms initiated by the government to preserve the macroeconomic stability and raise the population’s living standards.

Praising the government’s recent efforts to control expenditures, managers of the Bretton Woods institution indicated that it was essential to maintain the budget deficit below 3% to ensure the viability of the debt.

"The authorities should pursue their efforts to lengthen the average debt maturity and reduce interest costs. The recent debt reprofiling operation is a step in the right direction", Mitsuhiro Furusawa (photo), the institution’s deputy managing director, explained.

Let’s note that this new tranche raises the total volume of funds disbursed in the framework of the extended credit facility to $88.1 million.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou