Liberia Agrees Deal with IMF

Liberian authorities and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have reached a staff-level agreement will looks to boast the economy through “well-sequenced policies and structural reform”.

The IMF released a statement explaining what had been agreed in principle with Liberia.

It explains that “Liberia was facing major economic challenges” and that “significant fiscal adjustment was needed going forward, including by mobilizing additional domestic revenue and rationalizing spending, especially in the wage bill”.

The statement ends by saying that the staff-level agreement that had been reached was still subject to a number of legislative reforms that need to be undertaken by the Liberian government.

However, Dixon Nebo, spokesman for the National Housing Authority, has cautioned against triumphalism. 

He said “Liberia is not quite there yet.  But the staff-level agreement, agreed this week, is a step towards that direction.  Thus, this is not a time to celebrate, the IMF is not giving Liberia millions of dollars, so it would be unfair for anyone to raise the expectations of a nation, vulnerable to unrealistic expectations”.

This is not the first time Liberia has sought financial assistance from the IMF.

Back in 2015, when the country was reeling from a major outbreak of the Ebola disease, the IMF granted it a loan of $36.5 million for disaster recovery, as well as freeing a $45.6 million loan pay-out as urgent financing.