Browsing: COVID-19

On Monday, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the immediate debt service relief of 25 of IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the fund’s response to help deal with the impacts of the contagious Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

According to a statement provided by the lender, the funds go after the world’s poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next six months.

Further—IMF highlighted that the debt relief will help these 25 nations to channel more of their scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts.

IMF’s Managing Director Ms Kristalina Georgieva, said “The CCRT can currently provide about US$500 million in grant-based debt service relief, including the recent US$185 million pledge by the U.K. and US$100 million provided by Japan as immediately available …

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board approved the disbursement of $1 billion to Ghana to address the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Ghana has already been affected by the pandemic with the country’s growth slows down, exchange rates under pressure and tightening of financial conditions.

The fund to be drawn under the Rapid Credit Facility will help meet the pressing fiscal and balance of payments needs that the country is facing and speed support from other development partners.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is closely monitoring ghana’s situation and is ready to provide policy advice and further support if needed.

Also Read: World Bank, IMF grant Somalia debt relief

“The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting Ghana severely. The budget deficit is projected to widen this year given expected lower government revenues and higher spending needs related to the pandemic. The Fund’s emergency financial assistance under the Rapid Credit Facility will help address the country’s …

The novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has brought the skies down, even the aviation industry is not safe from the virus wrath. In this case, the African aviation industry is vulnerable, as the international body predicted earlier that, the pandemic would hurt the sector hard, as carriers.

According to information from Bloomberg, Africa’s biggest carriers, Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airways and Kenya Airways are among national airlines staring at mounting losses and the destruction of growth plans put in place before the COVID-19 outbreak.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said last week, African carriers may lose $4 billion in 2020 revenue as demand for travel around the continent grinds to a halt.

All three of Africa’s biggest carriers have to find a resolution to ensure amicable solutions reach as carriers “will, in some shape or form, have to enter into conversations with their respective governments about bailouts,” Mike Mabasa, chairman …

For almost a decade now, China’s presence in Africa continues rumbling the West which has been relegated to an almost observer state by the Asian giant.

As the latest scramble for the resource-rich continent gathers pace and with the shift from aid dependence to homegrown solutions, China has been a welcome handyman in fixing problems through expensive infrastructural projects commissioned by leaders who have a huge legacy stake in them. However, these projects are raising more questions than answers from citizens and observers.

The questions arise from the fact that in real life, the economies have not been growing as much as they are depicted in papers and flamboyant GDP plans. Again, many nations are now stuck in the red since in a state of distress as loans fall due and with no means to service them.

Golden opportunities at bridge connecting 8 African countries

These African nations are having …

Sub-Saharan Africa governments funding needs may rise by almost $75 billion due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) downplaying their economies, according to information from Goldman Sachs Group.

This particular insight comes into the play as last month, African finance ministers called for a $100 billion stimulus package, including suspension of debt to help the youngest continent combat the coronavirus pandemic, which has already registered a $29 billion dent to the economy so far and still counting.

According to the global investment bank, economists in London, Dylan Smith and Andrew Matheny, the pandemic could have a serious toll on the continent’s fragile fiscal pillars.

“Possibly the most severe impact of the crisis will be on already stretched fiscal balances. Budget deficits would likely rise from an average of around 3.5 per cent to high single digits, even before any loosening to soften the economic effects of the corona-crisis,” said Smith and …

Sub-Saharan Africa is likely to face its first recession in 25 years as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is cutting life from the continent’s economies, disrupts world trade, according to information from the World Bank.

According to information from Bloomberg, the lender said, the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) will probably contract 2.1 per cent to 5.1 per cent in 2020, compared with 2.4 per cent growth a year earlier.

World Bank Vice President for Africa, Hafez Ghanem said in a statement following the Africa Pulse report, that “The COVID-19 pandemic is testing the limits of societies and economies across the world, and African countries are likely to be hit particularly hard,”

The global investment bank, Goldman Sachs Group gave their prediction on African governments funding needs, saying that sub-Saharan Africa funding may rise by $75 billion due to COVID-19 hammering their economies.

Further, the growth downgrade is based on …

The African Development Bank (AfDB) raised $3 billion in a three-year bond to help lift the economic and social impact that the COVID-19( Coronavirus) pandemic will have on Africa’s economies and people’s livelihood.

In a statement, the AFDB noted that the ‘Fight COVID-19’ Social bond has a three-year maturity and will amass interest from bank treasuries, central banks and official institutions and asset managers and investors who are socially responsible with bids exceeding $4.6 billion.

At 53 per cent, Fight COVID-19 social bond was allocated to central banks and official institutions and asset managers at 20 per cent bank treasuries at 27 per cent while in the Final bond distribution statistics Africa got 8 per cent.

The social bond that will pay an interest rate of 0.75% is the largest dollar-dominated bond ever launched in international capital markets to date as well as the largest US dollar bench bank the …

Nigeria, Africa’s populous and largest economy is planning to raise about $6.9 billion from various multilateral lenders to assist their efforts towards curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

According to information from Bloomberg, the nation’s Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed told reporters Monday in the capital, Abuja that, the government will seek $3.4 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), $2.5 billion from the World Bank and a further $1 billion.

The highly contagious pandemic has hit the region’s largest economy hard as plummeting oil prices and capital flight threaten to push the economy into recession. Nigeria has reported over 230 cases of the coronavirus and 5 deaths so far.

Bloomberg reported that Fitch Ratings earlier on Monday followed S&P’s March 26 decision to downgrade Nigeria’s credit rating further into junk territory, citing its dependence on oil, which represent about half of the government revenue.

However, Nonso Obikili, head …

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board approved $165.99 million to help the Republic of Madagascar to address the urgent balance of payment that needs stemming from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The funds were under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF). RCF provides rapid concessional financial assistance with limited conditionality to low-income countries (LICs) facing an urgent balance of payments need.

Madagascar’s economy has largely been affected by the coronavirus pandemic with the country’s tourism dramatically declining, trade and investments declining as well as interferences in the manufacturing and mining exports.

The government of Madagascar is taking immediate actions to mitigate the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic by putting immediate fiscal measures to strengthen social protection and support the most vulnerable in society.

Suspension of fees and social contributions to aid the private sector in the country, donating staple food and also providing liquidity to preserve the stability of …

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is creating chaos all over the globe, taking lives, unevenly infecting a large number of people over space and time, and also affecting markets performance. Despite, these scenarios, African nations are keeping up the fight in curbing the virus impacts.

The continent’s central banks are trying to cushion their respective nation’s economies against the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to information from Bloomberg, as many central banks in the region of more than 1.2 billion target inflation and have to prop up volatile currencies, they have also used non-traditional policy tools, to cut interest rates to salvage economic growth and encourage more lending to consumers and businesses.

The pandemic which has infected more than 1 million people and killed over 69,000 people worldwide is hurting fragile African economies so bad.

According to a study conducted by African Union, the previously projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) …