Lending | The 2026 IMF Annual Report
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IMF lending framework and purpose
- IMF lending helps countries address balance of payments needs, stabilize their economies, respond to crises, and support sustainable economic growth.
- Financing sources:
- General Resources Account (GRA): financing at interest rates determined as an average of those prevailing among the world’s main currencies, plus a markup.
- Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT): loans to low-income countries (LICs) on concessional terms, below GRA lending terms and well below market rates.
- Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) (operationalized in 2022): a third lending pillar with a tiered interest rate structure differentiated across country groups, with LICs benefiting from more favorable terms.
- Financing modalities:
- Multi-year arrangements in support of a member’s program.
- Emergency financing for urgent balance of payments needs (including natural disasters).
- Precautionary arrangements to address potential balance of payments difficulties from future negative shocks.
FY 2026 demand and approved lending (May 1, 2025 – April 30, 2026)
- New requests approved: about SDR 29 billion.
- New GRA and PRGT lending arrangements, including precautionary arrangements:
- One nonprecautionary GRA Extended Fund Facility (EFF): SDR 5.9 billion.
- One nonprecautionary PRGT Extended Credit Facility (ECF): SDR 455.7 million.
- Two GRA Flexible Credit Line (FCL) precautionary arrangements: SDR 18.9 billion.
- One GRA Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) precautionary arrangement: SDR 128.8 million.
- Two members received emergency financing disbursements under the GRA Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI): SDR 456.8 million.
- Augmentations to existing arrangements:
- Five augmentations under the PRGT ECF: SDR 309.6 million.
- Two augmentations under the GRA EFF: SDR 1.1 billion.
- Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) approvals:
- Five country requests approved (Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Jordan, Liberia, Pakistan): totaling about SDR 1.8 billion.
PRGT reforms, financing, and operational details
- PRGT reform implementation status: implementation of the PRGT reforms approved in 2024 is on track.
- Tiered interest rate mechanism:
- Effective May 1, 2025, for PRGT commitments under new arrangements and new RCF loans.
- Poorest LICs: zero interest rate.
- Better-off LICs: positive but still concessional rate, calibrated to remain well below the SDR interest rate and market interest rates.
- GRA distribution framework objectives and progress:
- Aim: facilitate generation of additional subsidy resources for the PRGT of SDR 5.9 billion (in 2025 present value terms) to ensure a self-sustaining annual lending capacity of SDR 2.7 billion.
- First GRA income distribution to the Interim Placement Administered Account (IPAA): SDR 1.38 billion on June 1, 2025.
- Second GRA income distribution approved April 28 and took place June 1, 2026: SDR 1.38 billion.
- Quarterly transfers of interest income on IPAA balances to the PRGT’s Subsidy Reserve Account started August 1, 2025: totaling SDR 26.1 million through the end of FY 2026.
- As of April 30, 2026, 30 members have provided assurances worth 45.7 percent of the maximum cumulative distribution amount (SDR 6.9 billion), exceeding half of the required 90 percent threshold.
- IPAA member options once the 90 percent assurances threshold is reached (each member’s share of the IPAA principal becomes available and transferable):
- Option 1: Transfer share of total principal amounts in the IPAA directly to the PRGT’s Subsidy Reserve Account.
- Option 2: Transfer share of total principal amounts in the IPAA into a forthcoming Distribution Interim Administered Account, pending resolution of domestic processes.
- Option 3: Have share of total principal amounts in the IPAA paid directly to their SDR account before making an equivalent separate grant contribution to the PRGT.
Resource adequacy and trust-specific updates (March 2026 update to the Executive Board)
- PRGT:
- PRGT subsidy resources remain adequate, provided implementation of the 2024 PRGT reforms remains on track.
- Lower-than-expected lending commitments in 2024 and 2025 are expected to be broadly offset by additional demand in 2026 and 2027, expected to average SDR 3 billion to 5 billion per year in 2026 and 2027.
- Estimated PRGT lending capacity remains within the Board-endorsed corridor of SDR 2.5 billion to SDR 3.0 billion.
- PRGT reserves relative to credit outstanding have stabilized; PRGT loan resources are expected to be sufficient to cover lending demand through the medium term.
- RST:
- Continued good progress on voluntary bilateral contributions.
- RST loan resources expected to be sufficient to meet the current demand pipeline at least through 2028.
- RST reserves remain adequate under the baseline; net reserve coverage to credit outstanding temporarily falls below the 10 percent threshold in some adverse scenarios, indicating increased risks (notably from a greater share of lending to Group A countries benefiting from the interest rate cap).
- Gross reserve coverage remains above the 35 percent threshold in the baseline and in the adverse scenarios.
- RST comprehensive review planned for FY 2028 to assess experience, policy adjustments, and medium-term resource needs.
- Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT):
- CCRT delivered unprecedented support during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Since the pandemic, no qualifying cases have required CCRT funding.
- CCRT remains underfunded; next CCRT review planned for FY 2027/28 to address financing challenges.
- Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC):
- Nearly complete; Sudan’s progress toward the Completion Point is delayed after reaching the HIPC decision point in 2021.
- Latest country to reach the Completion Point and receive debt relief: Somalia, in December 2023.
- Somalia Administered Account, established in 2019 to support IMF debt relief to Somalia, was liquidated and terminated on August 1, 2025.
Policy initiatives and decisions
- Review of the Short-Term Liquidity Line (SLL):
- In December 2025, the IMF Executive Board concluded the Review of the SLL.
- Decision: SLL will terminate in April 2027, at the end of the seven-year period following its establishment, in line with the original design of the instrument.
- PRGT Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) cumulative access limits normalization (Executive Board decision, November 2025):
- Temporarily higher cumulative access limits under the RCF exogenous shock and large natural disaster windows were increased during the COVID-19 pandemic to 150 percent (from 100 percent) and 183.33 percent (from 133.33 percent) of quota, respectively.
- Executive Board agreed to maintain these higher cumulative access limits through the end of 2026.
- Limits to be reduced in two equal steps:
- Reduce by 25 percent of quota on January 1, 2027.
- Reduce by another 25 percent of quota on January 1, 2028.
- This restores cumulative access limits to their prepandemic levels.
- Countries that accessed the Food Shock Window under the RCF will retain until the end of 2029 the additional 25 percent of quota that was added to their cumulative access limits under the RCF exogenous shock window.
Country experiences and program outcomes
- Armenia:
- Averaged 7 percent real GDP growth over the past three years.
- Completed a precautionary Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with the IMF that started in 2022 and was successfully completed in 2025.
- Authorities embarked on a new three-year precautionary SBA with access to 100 percent of quota.
- Program outcomes: strengthened macroeconomic stability and rebuilt external buffers.
- Mexico:
- First member to sign an IMF Flexible Credit Line (FCL) in 2009.
- Maintained very strong economic fundamentals and a credible track record of policy implementation, avoiding drawing on the FCL and consistently reducing the level of funds accessible under it.
- Structural features: flexible exchange rate regime, credible inflation-targeting framework, fiscal responsibility law, well-regulated financial sector.
- Rwanda:
- 2022–25 Policy Coordination Instrument supported postpandemic recovery; structural reforms underpinned about 7 percent economic growth despite demand- and supply-side shocks and included significant fiscal consolidation of about 2 percent of GDP.
- 2023–24 Stand-by Credit Facility addressed short-term financing needs caused by flood emergencies.
- 2022–24 Resilience and Sustainability Facility focused on longer-term reforms; reforms were completed six months ahead of schedule.
- Rwanda’s sustained reform implementation supported one of the fastest rates of economic growth in Africa and illustrates the challenge in sub-Saharan Africa of sustaining growth while rebuilding buffers, preserving investment space, and managing climate-related risks.
- Broader note: Examples underscore the importance of country ownership, early engagement, and sustained reform efforts. The 2026 Review of Program Design and Conditionality will provide a comprehensive analysis of IMF program impact.
Key statistics and operational data
- New requests approved between May 1, 2025, and April 30, 2026: about SDR 29 billion.
- Selected approved amounts:
- EFF nonprecautionary arrangement: SDR 5.9 billion.
- ECF nonprecautionary arrangement: SDR 455.7 million.
- FCL precautionary arrangements: SDR 18.9 billion.
- SBA precautionary arrangement: SDR 128.8 million.
- RFI emergency financing disbursements: SDR 456.8 million.
- PRGT ECF augmentations: SDR 309.6 million.
- EFF augmentations: SDR 1.1 billion.
- RSF arrangements approved for five countries: about SDR 1.8 billion.
- Undisbursed lending commitments and credit outstanding (including prepandemic commitments, as of April 30, 2026):
- GRA: about SDR 144 billion.
- PRGT: about SDR 27 billion.
- SDR/US$ exchange rate on April 30, 2026: SDR 1 = US$ 1.372020.
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