Press Release No. 20/171

IMF Executive Board Approves US$111.6 Million Disbursement to Haiti to Address the COVID-19 Pandemic

April 17, 2020

• The IMF Executive Board approves the twentieth request for emergency financial assistance to help its member countries address the challenges posed by COVID-19.
• The approval of the Board will make available US$111.6 million in emergency financing to help Haiti address the challenges posed by COVID-19.
• IMF financing support provides resources to the authorities for essential health-related expenditures and income support to ease the impact of COVID-19 on the population.
• To address the pandemic, Haiti’s government announced measures to support workers and households, including paying salaries and providing food and cash transfers to the public.

Washington, DC – The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a disbursement to Haiti under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) equivalent to SDR 81.9 million (US$111.6 million, 50 percent of quota) to help cover balance of payment needs stemming from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has worsened an already weak economic outlook for Haiti. An expected sharp drop in remittance flows, reduction in textile exports, and drop in FDI will put significant strain on the balance of payments. Additional direct health and social expenditures, together with a further drop in fiscal revenues will add to the fiscal deficit and financing needs. IMF support will help cover some of this need and allow the government to ease the impact on the population, such as paying salaries of some teachers and workers, providing cash transfers and food rations to households, and providing subsidies to the transport and sanitation sectors.

Following the Executive Board discussion. Mr. Tao Zhang, Deputy Managing Director and acting Chair, made the following statement:

“COVID-19 poses a major challenge for Haiti, a country in a fragile situation with very limited healthcare services, just emerging from two years of socio-political instability and worsening economic hardship. Measures are being taken by the government to stop the spread of the virus and to cushion the economic impact of the shock.

“IMF emergency support under the Rapid Credit Facility will help fill the balance of payments gap and create fiscal space for essential health expenditures, income support to workers, and cash and in-kind transfers to households.

“To address the crisis, scarce budgetary resources will need to be allocated to critical spending on disease containment and increased social assistance to the most vulnerable. To ensure the appropriate use of emergency financing, the authorities should prepare monthly budget execution reports on COVID-19 expenditures and undertake an ex-post financial and operational audit of COVID-related operations. While providing adequate liquidity support to the financial sector, the central bank should contain monetary financing of the deficit and limit foreign exchange interventions to smoothing volatility.

“Expeditious donor support is needed to close the remaining balance of payments gap and ease the adjustment burden. The IMF intends to further support Haiti through a Staff Monitored Program to help start the process of restoring macroeconomic stability and sustainability, building a better social safety net, and tackling governance weaknesses and corruption.”

For information on the emergency financing requests approved by the IMF Executive Board, please see a link to the IMF Lending Tracker: https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/imf-and-covid19/COVID-Lending-Tracker

For upcoming discussions on the emergency financing requests, please see a link to the calendar of the IMF Executive Board meetings: https://www.imf.org/external/NP/SEC/bc/eng/index.aspx