CAPE TOWN - The International Monetary Fund said it would provide a $363.27 million loan under its rapid credit facility to support the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in its fight against Covid-19.
In a statement dated Wednesday, the IMF said the central African country was experiencing a severe shock as the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic unfolded, with the near-term outlook deteriorating quickly.
The fund, which concluded a staff visit to the DRC in February, acknowledged that the government had responded quickly to the virus, scaling up health-related spending and deploying a series of containment and mitigation measures.
"The short-term economic outlook has deteriorated quickly due to the fall of minerals’ prices and the impact of needed containment and mitigation measures," the IMF said.
The DRC is the world’s largest source of cobalt and Africa’s biggest copper producer. According to the World Bank it has over 1,100 listed minerals and precious metals.
"The pandemic is also dampening domestic revenue mobilization and putting significant pressures on foreign exchange reserves. Given the extraordinary nature of the pandemic and the sizeable economic fallout, the authorities have decided to accommodate the impact of the pandemic on the budget," said the IMF.
According to real-time data portal Worldometer, the DRC, which has also been grappling with Ebola, has 359 confirmed cases of Covid-19, out of which 25 people have died, while 45 have recovered.
"The Covid-19 ... outbreak will affect DRC’s economy, as containment measures impact domestic activities and exports are hit hard amid weaker commodity prices and global demand," IMF deputy managing director Mitsuhiro Furusawa said.
"Along with a decline in financial flows, the pandemic has created substantial urgent external financing needs."
The IMF noted that to limit the pandemic’s human and economic impact, the DRC authorities had adopted strong measures to contain its spread and prepared a Covid‑19 national response plan aimed at strengthening the medical response, while the central bank had announced some liquidity support measures.