The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has received the European Union (EU)’s contribution of $199 million to the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT).
CCRT, Development Diaries understands, provides grants for debt service relief to countries, including some African states, hit by public health disasters such as Covid-19.
CCRT-eligible countries are those eligible for concessional borrowing through the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) and whose annual per capita gross national income level is below $1,175.
Vulnerable countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, and Togo, benefit from the CCRT.
CCRT-eligible countries experience a high rate of new cOVID-19 cases (cumulatively rising to over 750,000), while associated deaths have reached some 13,000.
According to the IMF latest World Economic Outlook, real GDP in CCRT-eligible countries, after contracting in 2020 and rebounding this year, is expected to surpass 2019 levels in 2021 though still remaining far below the pre-Covid projections for 2021.
‘Through this contribution to the CCRT, Team Europe continues to stand in solidarity with its most vulnerable partners’, European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, said.
‘In this difficult period, the resources freed up can provide social services for the most vulnerable people, such as access to essential health care and education for young people, including girls.
‘Team Europe’s Global Recovery Initiative is working to provide debt relief and sustainable investment for the SDGs’.
This disbursement is part of the EU’s overall contribution of $215 million to the CCRT. It finances grants for the third tranche of CCRT debt service relief that was approved by the IMF’s Executive Board on 01 April, 2021.
‘The EU’s generous contribution of €183 million is critical to help the world’s most vulnerable countries cope with the impact of the Covid-19 crisis and continue providing health care, economic and social support for their people’, IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, said in a statement
‘I am grateful to the EU and its member states for their support and strong partnership. I urge other countries to contribute to the CCRT so we can in turn support our most vulnerable member countries’.
Source: IMF
Photo source: Africa CDC