Paris Club eases Congo's external burden

14 Juin 2020

Brazzaville, Congo, June 14 (Infosplusgabon) - The  Paris Club has eased Congo's external obligations by suspending until the end of this year the country's debt service, Congolese Budget minister Ludovic Ngatse announced on Saturday in Brazzaville.

"This Paris Club moratorium gives a breather to the government in order to finance expenses related to the coronavirus crisis and helps to improve the budgetary balance for the current year," said Ngatse, in an interview with the pro-government daily, Les Dépêches de Brazzaville (The Brazzaville Dispatch).

Ngatse also praised the "decisive role" played by the President of the Republic, who, he said, "personally coordinated the organization of the team responsible for negotiating this agreement.''

According to the minister, the COVID-19 pandemic has, in addition to the health crisis, caused an unprecedented economic burden which has considerable impacts on the macroeconomic balances of all countries around the world.

"Measures taken by the government to curb the spread of the virus as well as the sudden fall in the price of oil, created a double shock of supply and demand which significantly damaged the domestic and external balance,'' said Ngatse.

However, he pointed out that more efforts should e made to redress the country's macroeconomic fundamentals, which  depend more on endogenous factors, in particular the orientation of the budgetary, financial and structural policies.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/MOL/GABON2020

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