The Fund’s Financing Role—Reform Proposals on Liquidity and Emergency Assistance—Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI)

1. The Fund decides that resources in the credit tranches may be made available under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), in accordance with the terms and conditions specified in this Decision.

2. The Fund will approve a member’s request for resources under the RFI only where it is satisfied that:

• (a) the member is experiencing an urgent balance of payments need that, if not addressed, would result in an immediate and severe economic disruption;

• (b) the member either (i) has a balance of payments need that is expected to be resolved within one year with no major policy adjustments being necessary, or (ii) is unable to design or implement an upper credit tranche-quality economic program given the urgent nature of the balance of payments need or due to its limited policy implementation capacity; and

• (c) the member will cooperate with the Fund in an effort to find, where appropriate, solutions for its balance of payments difficulties. Where warranted, the Managing Director may request that the member implement upfront measures before recommending that the Fund approve a purchase under this Decision.

3. If a member has made a purchase under this Decision within the preceding three years, any additional purchases under this Decision may be approved only if the Fund is satisfied that (a) the member’s urgent balance of payments need was caused primarily by an exogenous shock; or (b) the member has established a track record of adequate macroeconomic policies over a period of at least six months immediately prior to the request.

4. A member requesting assistance under this Decision shall describe in a letter the general policies it plans to pursue to address its balance of payments difficulties, including its intention not to introduce or intensify exchange and trade restrictions and other measures or policies that would compound these difficulties. The member shall also commit to undergoing a safeguards assessment, provide staff with access to its central bank’s most recently completed external audit reports and authorize its external auditors to hold discussions with Fund staff. The timing and modalities for the safeguards assessment for a member that has received assistance under the RFI would be determined on a case-by-case basis, but normally the safeguards assessment would need to be completed before Executive Board approval for the member of any subsequent arrangement to which the Fund’s safeguards assessment policy applies.

5. Assistance under this Decision shall be made available to members in the form of outright purchases. Access by members to resources under this Decision shall be subject to (a) an annual limit of 50 percent of quota, and (b) a cumulative limit of 100 percent of quota, net of scheduled repurchases, provided that:

(A) for the period from April 6, 2020 to December 31, 2021, the above annual access limit shall be 100 percent of quota and for the period from April 6, 2020, to June 30, 2024, the above cumulative access limit shall be 150 percent of quota, net of scheduled repurchases, and

(B) the annual access limit shall be 80 percent of quota and the cumulative access limit shall be 133.33 percent of quota, net of scheduled repurchases, where (i) the member requests assistance under the RFI to address an urgent balance of payments need resulting from a natural disaster that occasions damage assessed to be equivalent to or to exceed 20 percent of the member’s gross domestic product (GDP), and (ii) the member’s existing and prospective policies are sufficiently strong to address the natural disaster shock. For the period from June 21, 2021 to December 31, 2021, the above annual access limit shall be 130 percent of quota and for the period from June 21, 2021, to June 30, 2024, the above cumulative access limit shall be 183.33 percent of quota, net of scheduled repurchases.

(C) for a period from September 30, 2022 to March 31, 2024, the Fund may approve financing of up to 50 percent of quota to help a member address an urgent balance of payments need associated with acute food insecurity, increased costs of cereal and fertilizer imports, or cereal export shortfalls. Access under this subparagraph (C) shall be fully additional to the annual access limits established under this paragraph 5. Subject to subparagraph (B) above, a member’s access to financing under this subparagraph (C) shall increase the cumulative access limit under the RFI to 175 percent of quota until June 30, 2024; and to 125 percent of quota between July 1, 2024 and December 31, 2026. Before approving financing under this subparagraph (C), the Fund shall be satisfied that the member has an urgent balance of payments need associated with one of the following:

• (1) acute food insecurity that is inflicting serious economic disruption within the member on such a scale as to warrant a concerted international effort to support the member. In assessing the qualification of members under this subparagraph (C)(1), the Executive Board would take into account whether the member faces acute food insecurity as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) or a major food crisis per the United Nations Global Report on Food Crisis (UNGRFC), in both cases, based on the most recent publicly available data; or

• (2) increased prices of cereal or fertilizer imports that negatively im-pact the member’s external current account where such negative im-pact amounts to at least 0.3 percent of GDP over a 12-month period, as specified in more detail in SM/22/229; or (3) shortfall in cereal exports, where the projected negative shock to cereal exports, bench-marked against the previous year, exceeds 0.8 percent of projected GDP for the compensable year.¹

6. The Executive Board approval of a purchase under the RFI after March 22, 2021 shall automatically expire after 60 days following the date of such approval (the “automatic expiration date”) if the Fund has not received the member’s authenticated instructions to request the approved purchase. The Executive Board, at the member’s request made prior to the automatic expiration date, may decide to delay such expiration date for an additional period not exceeding 60 days from the automatic expiration date. For those purchases under the RFI approved before March 22, 2021 that remain undrawn, Executive Board approvals for such purchases shall automatically expire 60 days after March 22, 2021.

7. In order to carry out the purposes of this Decision, the Fund will be prepared to grant a waiver of the limitation of 200 percent of quota in Article V, Section 3(b)(iii), whenever necessary to permit purchases under this Decision or to permit other purchases that would raise the Fund’s holdings of the purchasing member’s currency above that limitation because of purchases outstanding. SM/11/284, Sup. 3, 11/22/11)

Decision No. 15015-(11/112),

November 21, 2011,

as amended by Decision Nos. 15595-(14/46),

May 21, 2014,

15820 (15/66), July 1, 2015,

15821 (15/66), July 1, 2015,

16183-(17/35), May 5, 2017,

16517-(19/42), May 24, 2019,

16681-(20/96), (20/96), September 28, 2020,

16985-(21/29), March 22, 2021,

17068-(21/64), June 21, 2021,

17182-(21/121), December 20, 2021,

17326-(22/83), September 30, 2022,

17508-(23/52), June 27, 2023, and

17509-(23/52),

June 27, 2023

¹ Ed. Note: Decision No. 17326-(22/83), September 30, 2022 provides: “It is expected that the Fund will review the application of paragraph 5(C) of this Decision by end-June 2013.”