International Monetary Fund (IMF) will immediately release $28.5 million (Sh32 billion) to Kenya following a successful review of its three-year funding arrangement with the Treasury in April this year.
“The board’s decision allows for an aggregate immediate disbursement of SDR 185 million (about $258.1 million), bringing Kenya’s total disbursements for budget support under the Extended Credit Facility arrangements to $972.6 million,” said IMF on its Africa portal.
IMF said the arrangements for a total of over SDR 1,655 billion, are aimed at supporting Kenya’s program to address debt vulnerabilities and their response to the Covid-19 pandemic and at enhancing governance.
Kenya, according to the Bretton Woods institution has shown remarkable resilience to the Covid shock in 2020 and is staging an economic recovery.
The IMF estimates that growth will come through at 5.9 per cent in 2021. At the conclusion of the executive board’s discussion, Antoinette Sayeh, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, said the Kenyan authorities remain firmly committed to their economic programme in a challenging environment, adding that the programme performance has been robust.
Kenya’s Covid-19 vaccination program has picked up speed in the second half of 2021, though uncertainty and pandemic-related pressures will persist until vaccinations become widely available. The political calendar is also a source of uncertainty.
Kenya’s economic programme aims to reduce debt vulnerabilities through multi-year fiscal consolidation efforts centred on raising tax revenues and controlling spending.
