Mon 12 October 2020:
Some African countries are suffering from high debt burdens, forcing them to choose between debt service and additional social and health spending
The economic damage as well as the health costs caused by coronavirus has left Africa needing $1.2tn (£920bn) over the next three years, the International Monetary Fund has said.
IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said the world “must do more to support Africa to [recover]… from this crisis”.
Georgieva made her statements during the high-level virtual event on Mobilising with Africa, part of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings that will kick off officially on 12 October.
Africa has had fewer COVID infections and deaths than most other continents.
But the World Bank says 43 million more Africans are at risk of extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic.
The economic impact is reversing the trend in recent years of strong growth in Africa, as jobs have been lost and family incomes have been reduced by 12%, Georgieva added.
To help soften the blow, many African governments have introduced mitigation policies that have cost 2.5% of GDP, she added.
She said that some African countries are suffering from high debt burdens, forcing them to choose between debt service and additional social and health spending.
Current commitments from international financial institutions and official bilateral creditors are projected to meet less than a quarter of this need.
“With private capital still subdued, we face a projected gap of over $345 billion through 2023, and nearly half this burden is in Africa’s low-income countries,” said Georgieva.
The IMF has given African countries about $26bn to cushion the impact but even with the help of private lenders and other countries’ assistance there is still a huge shortfall in funding.
As a means to help, she called for an extension of the moratorium by the G20 of debt repayments and wanted more funds to be available to lend.
There have been more than 1.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa and nearly 37,000 people have died.
