IMF negotiations for Kenyan loan in final stages

Despite Kenya’s efforts to lower its debt burden, the government seems to be in need of more loans. As a result, the East African country is looking ahead to further lending from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Kenyan government anticipates receiving additional funding from the IMF by year-end.

According to the country’s central bank governor Kamau Thugge, as reported by Reuters, Kenya is currently in talks with the global lender to consider merging the seventh and eighth assessments of its support program.

He also mentioned at a news conference that the conversation is in its final stages.

“We are in the final stages of an agreement (with the IMF).

“The fiscal framework has been agreed,” the CBK governor stated.

The CBK governor also explained that in order to strengthen Kenya’s countermeasures against any short-term shocks, the central bank has begun accumulating the US dollars on the foreign exchange market.

The bank has stated before that it just steps in the currency market to reduce instability and that it has no preferred level for the shilling.

Prior to this new development, the East African country had requested a detailed analysis from the International Monetary Fund on how corruption and poor resource management erode its resources.

Early in June, Kenya and the IMF came to a staff-level agreement about the seventh assessment of the IMF’s US$3,6 billion programme.

The Ruto-led administration, however, was compelled to abandon planned tax increases and create budget cutbacks in late June in reaction to widespread protests that turned fatal, thus the review has not yet been approved by the Fund’s executive board. During the protests, the demonstrators urged the IMF not to provide Kenya any further loans, claiming that previous funds had either been recklessly spent or lost due to corruption, leaving no evidence of the former. This petition was issued at the headquarters of the IMF in Washington DC, by Kenyans living in the United States of America. – Business Insider Africa