IMF Lending Programs

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Publication date: April 2025.
Since its founding in 1944, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has provided financial assistance to countries to absorb shocks, catalyze private financing, and promote prudent macroeconomic policies.
The IMF’s total lending capacity is described as about $1 trillion.

IMF financing helps countries in three ways:
- It helps absorb shocks, enabling countries to meet immediate financial needs and cushion economic distress.
- It catalyzes private-sector investments and additional financial support by signaling that underlying issues can be resolved through reforms.
- It promotes prudent macroeconomic policies that support financial stability and growth.

Reconstructing the international payments system post-World War II.
Assisting newly independent African nations in the 1960s.
Supporting economies during the oil shocks in the 1970s.
Helping former Soviet Union nations transition to market-based economies.
Providing financial assistance to Mexico, Turkey, and key emerging market countries in Asia during the capital flow crises of the 1990s.
Catalyzing and providing multilateral debt relief to over 30 heavily indebted and low-income countries in the late 1990s/2000s.
Providing access to $540 billion to nearly 90 countries, particularly major economies in Europe, following the Global Financial Crisis.
Bringing timely financial support to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to fight the 2015 Ebola outbreak.
Providing around $400 billion in loans to almost 100 countries since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cyprus:
- Cyprus approached the IMF for a three-year lending arrangement of about €1 billion with two goals: putting the banking sector on a sound footing and returning public finances to a sustainable path.
Iceland:
- The IMF-supported program of $2.1 billion remains among the largest relative to the size of the economy—18 percent of Iceland’s GDP, or 1,190 percent of Iceland’s quota in the IMF.
Ireland:
- In November 2010, the Irish government sought help from the IMF and the European Union, which together provided loans totaling €67.5 billion—equal to 40 percent of Ireland’s economy.
Jamaica:
- Jamaica turned to the IMF in spring 2013 for financial support; the program required a primary surplus of 7.5 percent of GDP to help stabilize the economy and address long-standing structural challenges.
Portugal:
- The agreement between Portugal and its international partners extended financial assistance worth €78 billion ($116 billion; £70 billion)—of which one-third was committed by the IMF.
Serbia:
- A three-year precautionary Stand-By Arrangement was approved in 2015 when Serbia’s economy faced large fiscal imbalances and protracted structural challenges.