Reuters
The International Monetary Fund’s executive board has decided that Sudan has reached the decision point for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, it said in a statement on Tuesday, meaning the country can begin receiving relief on its more than $56 billion in debt.
A quarter of a century after the IMF and World Bank launched their HIPC debt relief program, Sudan is the penultimate economy to come through the process, and “by far the largest case in absolute terms,” an IMF official said last month.
As part of the so-called decision point, the IMF announced a 39-month $2.5 billion extended credit facility for Sudan – one of Africa’s largest and most populous countries – which will arrive in the form of grants and cheap loans.
The IMF board was scheduled to meet on Monday and expected to publish its decision by the following day. The fund did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
