Ethiopia official creditors to extend deadline for IMF deal, source says
3:53 pm Wednesday, April 03rd, 2024
PARIS (Reuters) -Ethiopia’s official international creditors will give the East African nation until the end of June to wrap up talks on IMF support after a prior deadline lapsed, a source close to the Paris Club of creditors said on Wednesday.
The International Monetary Fund concluded a visit to the country on Tuesday to discuss a request for support without reaching an agreement.
The Paris Club of developed creditor nations had said last year that an agreement to suspend Ethiopia’s debt payments through 2025 could be voided if the country did not secure an IMF loan by March 31.
“There’s a meeting today to say that the deadline is being extended to the end of June in order to maintain the incentive to reach a (IMF) staff level agreement,” the source told Reuters.
Ethiopia became the third African nation to default in as many years when in December it failed to make a coupon payment on its $1 billion Eurobond.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Tassilo Hummel, Gabriel Stargardter and Alison Williams)
