KIGALI (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund is looking for constructive and meaningful engagements towards an IMF programme for Ethiopia, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said during a visit to Kigali on Thursday.
“We are now looking for constructive and meaningful engagements toward an IMF programme for Ethiopia,” she said, as the east African country seeks an IMF loan after an African Union-backed ceasefire.
Africa’s second most populous country requested a debt restructuring under the Group of 20’s Common Framework process in early 2021, but progress was held up by a two-year civil war in the Tigray region.
The IMF requires debt relief commitments from a country’s bilateral creditors before it agrees to a loan programme.
Ethiopia’s government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a guerilla force-turned-political party, agreed on Nov. 2 to stop fighting following talks.
(Reporting by Kigali Newsroom; Writing by James Macharia Chege; Editing by Estelle Shirbon)
