IMF approves US $14 million loan

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a US $14 million loan for Benin and expects average real growth of 5.5 percent of gross domestic product over the coming years, an IMF statement said today. The IMF said the government planned new efforts to restructure its economy, privatising firms and reforming the operation of the civil service. Some 18 percent of tax revenue would go toward debt servicing. “Benin has made considerable progress in stabilising the economy and reducing financial imbalances,” the statement said. “However the situation remains fragile and vulnerable to changes in the regional and international environment.” The low-interest loan, issued under the IMF’s concessionary lending programme for poor states, is the second part of a three-year lending programme for the West African country. The text of the IMF statement has been issued on the IRIN-West Africa Extra service. The same text with the addition of a table of Benin’s main economic indicators can be found on the IMF website at http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm