Sierra Leone Gets $102 Million in Extra IMF Financing, Debt Relief

Financing package comprises loan installment, loan topup, grant

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The package comprises the release of part of the country’s existing IMF financing arrangement, a topup of the loan total, and debt relief funded by an IMF grant.

The Board approved a $12 million loan payout to Sierra Leone under the three-year Extended Credit Facility arrangement approved by the IMF Board in 2013. The Board also boosted financing under the loan arrangement by an extra $73 million, in a move aimed at generating the fiscal room to maneuver in tackling the Ebola epidemic and at meeting Sierra Leone’s balance of payment needs.

In addition, Sierra Leone became the second country—after Liberia—to benefit from grants from a newly established trust set up to help low-income countries recover from natural disasters. The Board approved a grant of $29 million from the catastrophe containment window of the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust to provide debt relief to Sierra Leone, amounting to 20 percent of the country’s quota, or subscription, in the IMF.

The package of IMF financing for Sierra Leone draws on $100 million in debt relief funded by IMF grants, announced last month. The debt relief follows $130 million in emergency assistance the IMF disbursed in September 2014 to the African countries worst hit by the Ebola outbreak—Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

Financing for Guinea, Liberia

On February 11 the IMF Board approved release of $25.9 million to Guinea under the West African country’s existing IMF-backed program, and boosted financing under the program by an extra $37.7 million, also to help combat Ebola. On February 23 the Board approved $36.5 million in a debt relief grant to Liberia and a $45.6 loan payout to Liberia under the Rapid Credit Facility.

The new Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust is a permanent feature in the IMF tool kit. It makes available grants to provide debt relief to eligible low-income countries recovering from a catastrophic natural disaster or seeking to contain the potentially catastrophic spread of a life-threatening epidemic within and across international borders.

The debt relief initiative and additional lending...