International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff and the Burkinabé authorities have reached a staff-level agreement for about US$80mn – comprising 50% of Burkina Faso’s IMF quota – in emergency financing through the IMF’s Food Shock Window of the Rapid Credit Facility
From 31 January – 8 February 2023, an IMF team led by Martin Schindler visited Ouagadougou to discuss the economic outlook, macroeconomic policy and possible responses to the ongoing food crisis, including through the provision of IMF financing.
The purpose of financing is to support measures to provide urgent assistance to households in acute food insecurity conditions. Burkina Faso’s request for emergency support is subject to approval by IMF management and the Executive Board.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 2.6 million people are in acute food insecurity conditions, with numbers expected to go up to 3.5 million in the absence of assistance measures. In regard to economic growth, the opening of new mines, along with efforts to improve domestic security conditions is likely to cause a rebound this year.
Within this economic context, the mission encourages authorities to intensify the dialogue with the international community to secure concessional financing in 2023 and beyond to create fiscal space while ensuring public debt sustainability. Progress on this dialogue, and continued reforms in the public finance domain would support a recovery beyond the short term.
