Ebola In Africa: IMF Grants $100 Million To Guinea, Liberia And Sierra Leone

Posted by ETFalpha ⋅ February 5, 2015 ⋅ 1 Comment

Filed Under Africa, Christine Lagarde, Ebola, FM, Frontier Markets, Funding, Grant, Guinea, IMF, International Monetary Fund, Liberia, Pandemics, Sierra Leone, West Africa

IMF

The International Monetary Fund has granted Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone debt relief of about $100 million in total. The IMF additionally offered the nations $160 million in zero-interest loans.

“Those three countries are going through a very, very dramatic ordeal that combines pandemics, the risk of isolation” told Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director.

The United States first proposed that the IMF offer some debt relief to the three impoverished West African countries to enable them to spend more on government services and their economies.

The IMF normally offers loans, not grants. However, alongside the announcement Thursday, it established a special catastrophe trust to offer grants to countries hit by tragic events.

The $100 million grant would allow each country to service their IMF debts over the next two years.

The Group of 20 major economies had urged the IMF last year to provide $300 million in funds to help stem the Ebola outbreak and support the three West African countries.

Source: Reuters