IMF Executive Board Approves Temporary Extensions and Modification of Access Limits in the Fund’s Lending Facilities

IMF News, March 25, 2021

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The Executive Board approved on March 22, 2021 further extensions of temporary adjustments to the Fund’s lending frameworks introduced in the early months of the pandemic.
Press release date: March 25, 2021.
Extensions aim to ensure continued access to IMF financing through emergency instruments, the General Resources Account (GRA), and the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT).

Extension through end-2021 of the increases in annual and cumulative access limits for the IMF’s emergency financing instruments (introduced April 2020 and extended October 2020).
Pandemic emergency financing use to date: 74 member countries, of which 49 low-income countries, received emergency financing through these instruments.
Specific access limits extended through end-December 2021:
- Regular window of the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI): annual access limit 100 percent of quota.
- Exogenous shocks window of the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF): cumulative access limit 150 percent of quota.
Extension through end-December 2021 of the suspension of the two-disbursement limit on disbursements under the RCF within a 12-month period.
Approval of proposals for the automatic lapsing of approved RCF disbursements and RFI purchases.
Directors noted that emergency financing remains available when a member has an urgent balance of payments need and a Fund arrangement is either not feasible or not necessary, but underscored an expectation that countries increasingly seek Fund arrangements meeting upper credit tranche quality standards.

Extension through end-2021 of the increase in the annual access limit to the IMF’s GRA (increase originally introduced July 2020).
Directors broadly supported the extension to provide flexibility in response to still-elevated uncertainties related to the pandemic.
A view was expressed that the annual access limit under GRA resources should revert to the pre-temporary-increase level so that countries seeking high access would be subject to the safeguards of the exceptional access policy.
Directors called on staff to use Board Briefings on Country Matters to keep the Board informed where elevated annual access is under consideration ahead of formal discussions with country authorities.

Extension of increases in both annual and cumulative access limits on concessional lending through the PRGT through end-June 2021, as an interim measure pending a broader Review of Concessional Financing and Policies.
Directors supported temporary increases recognizing many LICs have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic and have already borrowed significantly from the IMF.
Specific PRGT access limits approved through end-June 2021:
- Normal Annual Access Limit: 245 percent of quota.
- Normal Cumulative Access Limit: 435 percent of quota.
- Exceptional Annual Access Limit under all PRGT facilities: 278.33 percent of quota.
- Exceptional Cumulative Access Limit under all PRGT facilities: 535 percent of quota.
Directors reiterated the need to keep the Board informed where elevated annual access is under consideration ahead of formal discussions with country authorities.
Directors looked forward to a broader discussion of the Fund’s lending facilities for LICs and a medium-term solution to access limits under the PRGT as part of the forthcoming Review of Concessional Financing and Policies.

Directors underscored that access limits are safeguards in the Fund’s risk management framework, preserving Fund resources’ revolving nature and catalytic role, and should not be seen as targets.
In light of elevated debt vulnerabilities in many LICs, Directors supported additional safeguards related to:
- Analysis of debt vulnerabilities and Fund credit exposure.
- Debt-related discussions in program documents.
- Setting clear program objectives to reduce vulnerabilities.
Directors agreed that procedures applicable to high-access financing under the PRGT remain important safeguards and endorsed temporarily modifying threshold levels at which they apply.
Directors welcomed a proposal to review access limits under emergency financing instruments after the 2021 Annual Meetings.

Press Release No. 21/84, IMF Communications Department, March 25, 2021.