Coronavirus: IMF approves US$130 million support for Mauritania to address pandemic

24 Avril 2020

Nouakchott, Mauritania, April 24 (Infosplusgabon) – Mauritania has secured US$130 million as emergency support to be drawn under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The IMF Executive Board approved the disbursement on Thursday noting that the funds will help address Mauritania’s urgent balance of payments need stemming from the COVID-19 crisis, estimated at close to US$370 million, thereby providing space to increase spending on health services and social protection programmes.

According to the IMF, the economic and social impact of the crisis is expected to be substantial in Mauritania. The economy is currently projected to contract by 2 percent this year and the overall budget deficit could rise to 3.4 percent of GDP.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is having a dramatic human, economic, and social impact on Mauritania. The short-term economic outlook has deteriorated rapidly and growth is expected to turn negative this year, with severe hardships for the population, and the outlook is subject to considerable uncertainty,” remarked IMF Deputy Managing Director Mitsuhiro Furusawa.

In a statement, following the Executive Board’s discussion, Mr. Furusawa said the IMF’s  assistance will provide a sizable share of the financing needed to implement the anti-crisis measures.

“Additional concessional and grant financing from the international community will be critical to close the remaining financing gap and help Mauritania respond effectively to the COVID-19 crisis,” he added.

Mauritanian authorities are committed to full transparency and reporting of resources deployed for the emergency response, to audit crisis-mitigation spending once the crisis abates, and to publish the results, according to the IMF.

At the same time, they remain committed to the economic reform programme supported by the ongoing Extended Credit Facility arrangement with the IMF.

The programme aims at using the fiscal space to increase priority spending on education, health and social protection and infrastructure, while mobilising domestic revenues and maintaining prudent borrowing policies to preserve debt sustainability.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/ASD/GABON2020

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