## The Rapid Credit Facility (RCF)

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [The Rapid Credit Facility (RCF)](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/factsheets/english/2023-rapid-credit-facility.pdf)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/-/media/files/factsheets/english/2023-rapid-credit-facility.pdf.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/-/media/files/factsheets/english/2023-rapid-credit-facility.pdf.json)

---

### Purpose
- The Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) provides fast concessional financial assistance to low-income countries (LICs) facing an urgent balance of payments need.
- Provide concessional, rapid, and low-access financial assistance to qualifying LICs facing an urgent balance of payments need from a wide variety of circumstances, including external shocks, natural disasters, and emergencies connected to fragility.
- Respond to situations where a full-fledged economic program is not necessary because the need is transitory and limited in nature, or not feasible, including when facing capacity constraints of policy implementation.
- Provide policy support that may help catalyze foreign aid.

### Eligibility
- All PRGT-eligible member countries facing an urgent balance of payments need.
- Higher income countries not PRGT-eligible can use the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI).

### Windows (design and access limits)
- Four windows:
  - Regular:
    - Urgent balance of payments needs caused by sources including domestic instability, emergencies, and fragility.
    - Access up to 50 percent of quota per year and 100 percent of quota on a cumulative basis, with the annual access subject to a norm of 25 percent of quota.
    - A per disbursement limit of 25 percent of quota.
  - Exogenous shock:
    - Urgent balance of payments needs caused by a sudden, exogenous shock.
    - Access up to 50 percent of quota per year and 150 percent of quota on a cumulative basis.
    - A higher cumulative access limit (175 percent of quota) would be applied if the food shock window is used.
  - Large natural disaster:
    - Urgent balance of payments needs from natural disasters where damage is assessed to be equivalent to or exceed 20 percent of the member’s GDP.
    - Access up to 80 percent of quota per year and 183.33 percent of quota on a cumulative basis.
  - Food shock:
    - Urgent balance of payments needs due to acute food insecurity, a sharp increase in the food import bill, or a shock to cereal exports.
    - Access up to 50 percent of quota during the 12-month period from September 30, 2022 to September 29, 2023.
    - Access under the food shock window will be additional to the annual access limits of other windows.

### Conditionality
- No ex-post program-based conditionality or reviews, although prior actions sometimes apply.
- Economic policies should aim at addressing the underlying balance of payments difficulties and support the country's poverty reduction and growth objectives.

### Review modalities
- No reviews.

### Terms
- Duration:
  - Single Disbursement.
- Repayment:
  - Grace period of 5½ years, and a final maturity of 10 years.
- Interest rate:
  - Currently zero.
- Access:
  - Subject to annual and cumulative limits.
  - Current cumulative access limits of the exogenous shock window and large natural disaster window will be reviewed by June 2023.
  - A review of the food shock window will also conducted be by the end of June 2023.
  - Repeat use within any three-year period is possible if the balance of payments need is caused primarily by a sudden and exogenous shock or the need arises in a country which has established a 6-month track record of adequate macroeconomic policies, including through a Staff Monitored Program, prior to the request.
  - No more than two disbursements may be made in any 12-month period.
  - Disbursements under the food shock window do not count towards the two-disbursement limit.

---


_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/factsheets/english/2023-rapid-credit-facility.pdf_