The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved on Friday a three-year extended credit facility worth about $455 million for the Republic of the Congo, the IMF said.
The decision will enable an immediate disbursement to the Central African oil producer of about $90 million, it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, The IMF will release its World Economic Outlook on January 25, a week later than planned, to factor in the latest COVID-19 developments, a spokesperson for the global lender said, amid signs another downgrade is coming.
“The World Economic Outlook update will be launched on January 25 to allow our teams to incorporate the latest developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic into the economic forecasts,” the spokesperson said.
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva last month told the Reuters Next conference that the IMF was likely to further downgrade its global economic growth projections in January to reflect the emergence of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
In October, the IMF had forecast global economic growth of 5.9% in 2021 and 4.9% this year, while underscoring the uncertainty posed by the new coronavirus variants.
The coronavirus has killed nearly 5.8 million people worldwide over the past two years.
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