Kinshasa, April 19th, 2021 (CPA).– The governor of the Central Bank of Congo (BCC), Deogratias Mutombo Mwana Nyembo, has announced that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will be able to benefit, in the coming days, from non-reimbursable from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the amount of 1.6 billion US dollars out of USD 30,000,000,000 to be granted to the countries of the African continent, out of a global amount estimated at USD 650,000,000,000 intended for all IMF member countries, to enable them to revive their respective economies.
He said so on Friday, April 16th, during a press conference he hosted after the third meeting of the monetary policy committee (PMC). This announcement stems from the conclusions of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) which ended last week.
IMF said during these meetings that the growth outlook for the world economy should rebound in 2021, with a growth rate of 6%, stressing that these prospects remain both uncertain or divergent depending on the country, before to add that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a loss of more or less 20% of income per capita in developing countries, unlike developed countries where this drop is estimated at 11%.
It is for this reason that IMF seeks to financially support low-income member countries, in order to invest mainly in the areas of health, education, food, basic infrastructure and protection social, without compromising the stability of the macroeconomic framework. But, warns the IMF, “These countries must first undertake policies to transform their economies to stimulate diversification and productivity. In addition, low-income countries must work to increase national financial resources to make it possible to free up the budgetary margin which is necessary for public investments”.
Advocacy for a new allocation of the SDR
IMF member states, especially those with quotas, have stressed the importance of a new special drawing rights (SDR) allocation amounting to USD 650,000,000,000. This amount was also considered insufficient for Africa because of the economic damage caused by Covid-19. A request to double this amount has been made, because the distribution of this fund is based on the quota of each country. DRC has a large quota. This would explain why DRC obtains an amount that would exceed USD 500,000,000 in the amount of USD 30,000,000,000 destined for Africa. At the same time, low-income countries have called for the establishment of voluntary transfer of SDR from advanced countries that are not used, to low-income countries that need them most, in order to meet the imperatives of ‘investments, health and so many other hazards. This proposal, said the governor of the Central Bank of Congo, was accepted. ACP/Dimuka /JJL /GM