Gabon Request For A Three Year Extended Arrangement Under The Extended Fund Facility Press Release Staff Report Supplementary Information And Statement By The Executive Director For Gabon

The Gabonese economy was gradually recovering from the 2014 oil price shock when it was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Decisive confinement measures have helped save lives, but the pandemic and the fall in oil prices have severely hit the economy, increasing unemployment and poverty. With a weak economy and increased COVID-19 related spending, the fiscal deficit has widened, with a sharp increase in public debt. Emergency financing from the IMF through the Rapid Financing Instrument (US$299.61 million) helped meet urgent balance of payment needs in 2020. Growth is expected to resume in 2021 but the pandemic has made the economic outlook very challenging and generated sizable financing needs over the medium term.

The Gabonese economy was gradually recovering from the 2014 oil price shock when it was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Decisive confinement measures have helped save lives, but the pandemic and the fall in oil prices have severely hit the economy, increasing unemployment and poverty. With a weak economy and increased COVID-19 related spending, the fiscal deficit has widened, with a sharp increase in public debt. Emergency financing from the IMF through the Rapid Financing Instrument (USD 299.61 million) helped meet urgent balance of payment needs in 2020. Growth is expected to resume in 2021 but the pandemic has made the economic outlook very challenging and generated sizable financing needs over the medium term.

The Gabonese economy was gradually recovering from the 2014 oil price shock when it was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Decisive confinement measures have helped save lives, but the pandemic and the fall in oil prices have severely hit the economy, increasing unemployment and poverty. With a weak economy and increased COVID-19 related spending, the fiscal deficit has widened, with a sharp increase in public debt. Emergency financing from the IMF through the Rapid Financing Instrument (US$299.61 million) helped meet urgent balance of payment needs in 2020. Growth is expected to resume in 2021 but the pandemic has made the economic outlook very challenging and generated sizable financing needs over the medium term.

Political risks appear to have subsided with the completion of legislative and local elections in October. The economy is slowly recovering, fiscal consolidation has continued, inflation has remained low, and the trade balance has improved. The recovery is expected to firm up in 2019 and the medium-term outlook is still promising, although risks remain mostly tilted to the downside.

Political risks appear to have subsided with the completion of legislative and local elections in October. The economy is slowly recovering, fiscal consolidation has continued, inflation has remained low, and the trade balance has improved. The recovery is expected to firm up in 2019 and the medium-term outlook is still promising, although risks remain mostly tilted to the downside.

The key objectives of the program are to restore macroeconomic and debt sustainability, address falling reserves, and increase growth. The new government, which took office in late May, has committed to fiscal consolidation and structural reform as key tools for macroeconomic adjustment.

Cameroon, the largest economy in the Central African Economic and Monetary Union (CEMAC), continues to face the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the onset of the pandemic, the IMF’s Executive Board has approved two disbursements under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) totaling SDR 276 million, about US$ 382 million or 100 percent of Cameroon’s quota. Cameroon’s last arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) ended in September 2020, without completion of the sixth and final review. The authorities have requested new arrangements from the IMF to help maintain external sustainability, implement their ambitious reform agenda—laid out in the National Development Strategy for 2020-30 (SND30)—and catalyze financial support from other donors.

Economic and financial crises have become perennial features of today’s global economy. Macroeconomic theories of crisis, including the global crisis that unfolded in 2008, emphasize the role of financial deregulation; capital flow imbalances; and growing debt, fueled by income and wealth inequality. These approaches tend to be divorced from feminist thinking which analyzes broader distributional dynamics transmitted through structural channels and government policy responses, with an emphasis on gender, race, class and ethnicity. This volume brings together innovative thinking from heterodox macroeconomists and feminist economists to explore the causes, consequences, and ramifications of economic crises. By doing so, it highlights aspects of the economy that are frequently overlooked or ignored, such as the impact of crises on the vast amount of unpaid work which women perform relative to men.? The collection of international studies assembled here takes an innovative approach to analyzing a range of issues, from the subprime mortgage crisis to the gendered effects of austerity to the role of the International Monetary Fund in governing an unstable global economy. In so doing, it looks beyond causes and consequences and points to new directions for macroeconomic and financial policy. This book was originally published as a special issue of Feminist Economics.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the volatility in oil prices, heightened insecurity, and a looming food crisis due to climate change have severely stressed an already vulnerable Chadian economy. The two Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) disbursements in April and July 2020 allowed Chad to meet its immediate financing and urgent balance of payment needs in the early stages of the pandemic. The authorities have requested Fund assistance under the ECF to support their post-COVID recovery and their plan to reduce debt vulnerabilities through a combination of a debt workout and a multi-year fiscal consolidation program. However, due to the death of the president following a resurgence of fighting with rebel groups in April and the delayed delivery of donor support, the treasury situation has become extremely tight, threatening social stability.