By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday granted Malawi a waiver, paving way for fresh borrowing.
This comes after the Southern African country was suspected of misreporting its foreign exchange reserves.
“The IMF Executive Board met yesterday, Wednesday November 16, in Washington D.C. and reached a decision to grant the waiver requested by the Malawian Authorities in connection with the misreporting of the Net International Reserves,” IMF representative for Malawi, Farayi Gwenhamo said.
“The IMF executive directors granted the waiver on account of the corrective measures the authorities have taken so far and commit to going forward,” she added in written responses to questions. “This opens a pathway to a new extended credit facility once public debt sustainability is addressed.”
The IMF and Malawi last month reached a staff-level agreement on up to $88.3 million in emergency financing under a new IMF arrangement called the “Food Shock Window”.
Earlier this year Malawi also requested a four-year extended credit facility to help with balance of payments difficulties.
The donor-dependent Malawi has been experiencing long queues at fuel stations that are running dry due to a lack of foreign currency.
