Review of The Cumulative Access Limits Under The Rapid Financing Instrument and The Rapid Credit Facility
Review of The Cumulative Access Limits Under The Rapid Financing Instrument and The Rapid Credit Facility

Author: International Monetary Fund. Finance Dept.

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2023-06-30

Total Pages: 25

ISBN-13:

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The IMF extended the temporarily higher Cumulative Access Limits under the Fund’s Emergency Financing instruments, the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) under the General Resources Account, and the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust. This extension ensures that the Fund can continue to support member countries that accessed Fund’s emergency financing during COVID-19 pandemic in case of renewed emergency situations. The temporarily higher cumulative access limits under the RFI will be maintained until end-June 2024 when most RFI recipients will have repaid a significant part of their past emergency financing. The temporarily higher cumulative access limits under the RCF will be maintained until the completion of the 2024/25 comprehensive review of the Fund’s concessional facilities and financing, given the longer repayment schedule for RCF financing.

Interim Review of Access Limits Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust and Initial Considerations for Access Limits Under the General Resource Account
Interim Review of Access Limits Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust and Initial Considerations for Access Limits Under the General Resource Account

Author: International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2023-12-15

Total Pages: 42

ISBN-13:

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The interim review on PRGT access limits follows the call from the Executive Board in March 2023 and confirmed by the IMFC in October 2023. Low-income countries (LICs) face high economic uncertainty and pressures, while grappling with limited policy space and a funding squeeze. In March 2023, access limits under the General Resources Account (GRA) were temporarily increased for 12 months to give space for countries to face such economic pressures. The IMF Executive Board emphasized the importance of the alignment of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) access limits with those of the GRA that was achieved in 2021. The Board also agreed that, once substantial progress with PRGT fundraising toward the SDR 2.3 billion first-stage target for subsidy resources agreed in 2021 has been made—with total pledges of SDR 2 billion or more—access limits under the PRGT would be reviewed at an ad hoc interim review. This target has now been reached, paving the way for the review, also called for by the IMFC during the Annual Meetings in October 2023, in a context where the LICs’ economic challenges have further increased, including due to the risk of additional negative spillovers on the global economy stemming from the current geopolitical tensions and conflicts.

Temporary Modifications To Access Limits Under The Large Natural Disaster Window Of The Rapid Credit Facility And Of The Rapid Financing Instrument
Temporary Modifications To Access Limits Under The Large Natural Disaster Window Of The Rapid Credit Facility And Of The Rapid Financing Instrument

Author: International Monetary

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2021-06-21

Total Pages: 14

ISBN-13: 1513587404

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To help support members faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fund temporarily increased certain access limits to its emergency financing (EF) instruments, i.e., Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) and Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI). While this expanded support has been critical to help countries manage the pandemic, the increase in access limits was not applied to the Large Natural Disasters (LND) windows within the EF toolkit, reducing the flexibility to respond to such LNDs. This paper proposes to temporarily increase by 50 percent of quota the annual access limit (AAL) and cumulative access limit (CAL) under the LND windows of the RCF and RFI. The changes to the “LND windows” would be in effect through end-December 2021, in line with the other temporary changes of access limits under EF instruments. The case for further extensions to all the temporarily increased EF AALs and CALs will be examined after the 2021 Annual Meetings.

Proposal for a Food Shock Window Under the Rapid Financing Instrument and Rapid Credit Facility
Proposal for a Food Shock Window Under the Rapid Financing Instrument and Rapid Credit Facility

Author: International Monetary

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2022-10-05

Total Pages: 21

ISBN-13:

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Russia’s war in Ukraine has exacerbated global economic pressures, including through a food shock. The war and food-related spillovers—higher import prices for food and fertilizer and disruptions in supply lines for food importers, and a loss of revenue for some food exporters—add to urgent balance-of-payments (BOP) needs of many Fund members. They have also exacerbated acute food insecurity, now affecting 345 million people. While the best response to address BOP pressures would generally involve an Upper Credit Tranche-quality program, such a program may not be feasible in some cases or necessary in others. This paper proposes a time-bound food shock window under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) and the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) to provide support to members in such situations. The new window would be temporary and provide low-access emergency financing that increases the amounts currently available under the RFI/RCF. Members would need to demonstrate urgent BOP needs and meet a set of qualification criteria related to the global food shock. The window would be available for 12 months from the date of Board approval of the window. Countries requesting financing under the window would also need to meet the standard qualification criteria under the RFI/RCF.

Review of Experience with The Food Shock Window Under The Rapid Financing Instrument and The Rapid Credit Facility
Review of Experience with The Food Shock Window Under The Rapid Financing Instrument and The Rapid Credit Facility

Author: International Monetary Fund. Finance Dept.

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2023-06-30

Total Pages: 29

ISBN-13:

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The Food Shock Window (FSW) under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) and the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) was approved in September 2022 for 12 months, as a complement to the tools used by the Fund to support the broader international effort to address the global food shock. The Fund has been working closely with partners to provide a coordinated international response to the global food shock, and has contributed through policy advice, technical assistance and lending. Where needed and possible, financial support to countries affected by the global food shock has been delivered by the IMF through multi-year Fund-supported programs The FSW complemented this support in situations where these programs were not feasible or not necessary. As the global food shock and associated balance of payment pressures are expected to continue throughout 2023, the IMF extended the FSW until end-March 2024 to allow the FSW to continue serving as a contingency tool. This extension will also provide sufficient time to observe if the FSW can lapse without limiting the capacity of the Fund to support its members. To ensure adequate borrowing space under the emergency financing limits for those countries that have received support through the FSW, the IMF also extended the additional 25 percent of quota added to the Cumulative Access Limit until end-2026 for countries that have accessed the Food Shock Window through the RFI and until the completion of the 2024/25 PRGT review for those that accessed the Food Shock Window through the RCF.

Large Natural Disasters--Enhancing the Financial Safety Net for Developing Countries
Large Natural Disasters--Enhancing the Financial Safety Net for Developing Countries

Author: International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2017-05-15

Total Pages: 31

ISBN-13: 1498346839

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The Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) and Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) are valuable components of the disaster risk financing tool kit for Fund members, especially developing countries. They help to meet urgent balance of payments needs, and are designed to play a catalytic role in mobilizing other external financing. This paper develops proposals for a higher annual access limit under the RCF and RFI, building on a November 2016 staff paper on small states’ resilience to natural disasters and climate change (IMF, 2016c). Directors generally supported the proposal in that paper to establish higher annual access limits of 60 percent of quota under the RCF and RFI for countries experiencing severe natural disaster-related damages. The focus of this paper is to specify the threshold of damage from a natural disaster that would allow members experiencing urgent balance of payments needs arising from such disasters to access emergency financing at the higher annual limit. In the November 2016 paper, staff proposed, among other things, the possibility of establishing a higher access limit under the RCF and RFI where the amount of damage reached the threshold of 30 percent of GDP. Most Directors regarded the proposed threshold of disaster damage as overly restrictive, and suggested lowering the threshold to 20 percent of GDP or lower, provided that this did not jeopardize the self-sustainability of the PRGT. For a range of future disaster outcomes, a damage threshold of 20 percent of GDP could increase projected annual average PRGT loan demand in the 1-5 percent range over the next decade, which should not pose significant risks to the robustness of PRGT self-sustainability. Cautious stewardship of PRGT resources argues against a lower disaster damage threshold, pending further experience with disaster trends and associated PRGT loan demand. This paper does not propose changes to the current cumulative access limits for the RCF and RFI. The cumulative access limits play an important role in the Fund’s financing architecture, constraining the extent to which countries can access Fund resources without implementing a Fund-supported program with upper credit tranche (UCT) conditionality and associated policies in circumstances where such a program would be more appropriate. The Board will have the opportunity to review the cumulative access limits in the context

Selected Decisions and Selected Documents of the International Monetary Fund, Fortieth Issue
Selected Decisions and Selected Documents of the International Monetary Fund, Fortieth Issue

Author: International Monetary Fund. Legal Dept.

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2019-09-24

Total Pages: 854

ISBN-13: 1498318983

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This volume is the Fortieth Issue of Selected Decisions and Selected Documents of the IMF. It includes decisions, interpretations, and resolutions of the Executive Board and the Board of Governors of the IMF, as well as selected documents, to which frequent reference is made in the current activities of the IMF. In addition, it includes certain documents relating to the IMF, the United Nations, and other international organizations. As with other recent issues, the number of decisions in force continues to increase, with the decision format tending to be longer given the use of summings up in lieu of formal decisions. Accordingly, it has become necessary to delete certain decisions that were included in earlier issues, that is, those that only completed or called for reviews of decisions, those that lapsed, and those that were superseded by more recent decisions. Wherever reference is made in these decisions and documents to a provision of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement or Rules and Regulations that has subsequently been renumbered by, or because of, the Second Amendment of the Fund’s Articles of Agreement (effective April 1, 1978), the corresponding provision currently in effect is cited in a footnote.

2018-19 Review of Facilities for Low-Income Countries---Reform Proposals
2018-19 Review of Facilities for Low-Income Countries---Reform Proposals

Author: International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2019-06-06

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 1498325769

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2018-19 Review of Facilities for Low-Income Countries---Reform Proposals: Review Of The Financing Of The Fund’s Concessional Assistance And Debt Relief To Low-Income Member Countries

Review Of Temporary Modifications To The Fund’s Access Limits In Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic
Review Of Temporary Modifications To The Fund’s Access Limits In Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic

Author: International Monetary

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2021-12-22

Total Pages: 27

ISBN-13: 1616357320

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Over the course of the pandemic, the Fund has made several modifications to the access limits on the use of Fund’s resources to increase the borrowing space under the hard caps on emergency financing and under the annual limits that trigger exceptional access (EA) safeguards under GRA and PRGT. The current temporarily-increased access limits expire at end-December 2021, and absent policy changes, the limits would return to the lower pre-pandemic levels or to the new PRGT annual access limit. Staff proposes to let all access limits return to pre-pandemic levels (or the new PRGT annual access limit), with the exception of the cumulative access limits for emergency financing instruments, which would be extended at the current level for another 18 months.