IMF deploys emergency financing for 70 countries amid COVID-19 pandemic

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said it is expected to deploy emergency financing for 70 countries by Friday as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ripple across the globe.

IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice said at a virtual press briefing Thursday that “tomorrow we expect that number to be 70, so 70 countries supported by the IMF with emergency financing roughly about 25 billion dollars.”

“This emergency financing is very fast-disbursing, countries receive the money within days, it does not carry traditional IMF conditionality,” Rice told reporters. “It is money to be spent on paying for things like nurses’ and doctors’ salaries, and equipment, and medical equipment to deal with the crisis.”

For the Asia and Pacific region, seven countries have received emergency financing totaling about 1.5 billion dollars, Rice said.

And in Sub-Saharan Africa, 28 countries have received emergency financing totaling almost 10 billion dollars, Rice said, noting that the figure is much higher than the IMF’s average yearly lending of 1 billion dollars to the region.