Press Release No. 20/324

IMF and the Banco de España Amend Agreement to Increase Lending to Low-Income Countries by an Additional SDR 750 Million

October 28, 2020

• The Banco de España agrees to provide an additional SDR 750 million (US$ 1.06 billion) to IMF’s Trust benefitting low income member countries, bringing total contribution to SDR 1.2 billion (US$ 1.7 billion).

Washington, DC: The International Monetary Fund (IMF), as Trustee of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT), and the Banco de España have entered into an amendment of their 2017 borrowing agreement (see Press Release No. 17/155), through which the Banco de España will provide an additional amount of up to SDR 750 million (about US$1.06 billion ) in new loan resources. Accordingly, the total loan amount under the borrowing agreement with the Banco de España was amended to provide up to SDR 1.2 billion (US$ 1.7 billion) for the PRGT benefitting the IMF’s low‑income member countries.

This amendment, made effective on July 1, 2020, constitutes Spain’s seventh loan contribution to the PRGT. It puts Spain among the first providers of new PRGT loan resources under the current accelerated fundraising campaign in response to COVID-19 related demand for the Fund’s concessional resources. Following the Executive Board’s endorsement, the Managing Director launched this campaign in April 2020 with a target of SDR 12.5 billion in new bilateral loan resources.

Spain’s continued support of the PRGT by providing loan resources for the IMF’s low-income member countries is a critical element towards sustaining the Fund’s concessional lending operations over the medium-term.