Somalia has asked the International Monetary Fund to delay the automatic expiration of its extended credit facility arrangement by three months to allow for a new administration to confirm the policies and reforms that underpin the program. The three-year $395.5 million arrangement that was approved in 2020 is set to automatically expire on May 17 after no reviews of the program were completed for 18 months due to election delays and related shortfalls in financing, Finance Minister Abdirahman Dualeh Beileh and central bank Governor Abdirahman M. Abdullahi said in a letter to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. IMF staff completed a virtual mission to discuss the second and third reviews of the credit facility in March and said in a statement that a timely resolution of the political uncertainty and successful completion of elections is critical to avert the automatic lapse of the program. The east African nation’s parliament confirmed this week it will hold its presidential election that was originally scheduled for February last year on May 15.
SOURCE: BLOOMBERG