IMF OKs final loan tranche to Mali
The International Monetary Fund on Monday approved a final loan disbursement of $9.3 million for Mali, whose government is currently negotiating a successor IMF economic program.
The new loan program for Mali, a largely desert country and Africa's third-largest gold miner, is expected to be finalized within the next few weeks. The country's economy was hard hit by conflicts in Ivory Coast and Libya this year.
"The economic outlook is positive, although subject to downside risks," said Min Zhu, IMF deputy managing director said in a statement.
"The authorities' priorities in the near-to-medium term remain macroeconomic stability, revenue mobilization, public financial management, and private sector development to promote sustained and diversified growth with debt sustainability," he added.
Mali's economy was hard hit by a political standoff in Ivory Coast in November 2010, which ended in April when President Alassane Ouattara took power and former leader Laurent Gbagbo was arrested.
Countries such as Niger, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso make up a swathe of arid states to the south of Libya, where rebels ousted former leader Muammar Gaddafi.
This article was originally posted on Sustainable Development Africa Platform
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