{
  "title": "Press Release: IMF Approves Emergency Assistance for Honduras",
  "publication": "IMF News, December 7, 1998",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2015/09/14/01/49/pr9860",
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  "summary": "The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved Honduras’ request for emergency financial assistance related to natural disasters.",
  "publishDate": "1998-12-07",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Emergency assistance approved",
      "content": "- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved Honduras’ request for emergency financial assistance related to natural disasters.\n- The assistance is equivalent to SDR 47.5 million (about US$66 million).\n- Purpose: to support the government’s economic recovery program and associated relief and rehabilitation efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Economic context on the eve of Hurricane Mitch",
      "content": "- Progress over the past two years included:\n  - Faster real GDP growth.\n  - Lowering inflation.\n  - Reducing fiscal imbalances.\n- Private sector confidence was on the upswing due to:\n  - Achievements noted above.\n  - Advances in privatization.\n  - Reforms in the tax system and the financial sector.\n- A new program of stabilization and broad-based reforms supported under the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) was close to agreement, which would:\n  - Facilitate additional concessional loans from the World Bank and the Inter American Development Bank (IADB).\n  - Normalize relations with creditors."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Devastation and economic impact of Hurricane Mitch",
      "content": "- Human and social impact estimates:\n  - Deaths close to 5,500.\n  - About 8,000 people missing.\n  - Nearly 2 million people displaced.\n  - Several towns and villages destroyed.\n- Infrastructure and public services:\n  - Several roads and bridges made impassable.\n  - Most schools and several hospitals and administrative centers closed.\n  - Basic public services devastated.\n- Economic losses and growth outlook:\n  - Authorities’ first approximations indicate losses of inventories and fixed assets--including infrastructure--amounting to about 40 percent of GDP.\n  - Real GDP is estimated to fall to 3 percent in 1998 and turn negative in 1999, compared with pre-hurricane projections of real GDP growth of about 5-6 percent a year."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Authorities’ response and near-term policy actions",
      "content": "- Immediate priorities addressed with substantial international help:\n  - Providing food, shelter, and health care to the homeless and displaced persons.\n  - Taking measures to preserve public health.\n  - Repairing essential infrastructure and beginning clean-up and reconstruction work.\n- Measures to limit macroeconomic disruption:\n  - Adopting measures aimed at limiting the effects of the disaster on inflation and interest rates.\n  - Formulating a revised central government budget for 1999 to account for changed revenue outlook and new spending requirements.\n  - Efforts to limit domestic financing in part by reallocating spending to emergency needs."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Medium-term program intentions and IMF facilities",
      "content": "- Once immediate priorities are addressed, authorities intend to resume discussions to finalize an economic program to be supported under the ESAF focused on:\n  - Consolidation of macroeconomic stability.\n  - Increasing prospects for private investment.\n  - Deepening structural reforms to address constraints to growth.\n- ESAF details provided:\n  - The ESAF is a concessional IMF facility for assisting eligible members undertaking economic reform programs to strengthen their balance of payments and improve their growth prospects.\n  - ESAF loans carry an interest rate of 0.5 percent a year and are repayable over 10 years with a 5½-year grace period."
    },
    {
      "heading": "IMF membership and financing position of Honduras",
      "content": "- Honduras joined the IMF on December 27, 1945.\n- Honduras’ quota is SDR 95.0 million (about US$133 million).\n- Honduras’ outstanding use of IMF financing currently totals SDR 33 million (about US$45 million).\n\nSource: Press Release No. 98/60, \"Press Release: IMF Approves Emergency Assistance for Honduras\" (December 7, 1998).\n\n---\n\n\n References\n\n- Honduras and the IMF\n- Press Releases\n- PRESS CENTER\n- https://www.imf.org/en/home\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2015/09/14/01/49/pr9860"
    }
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    "Published: December 7, 1998",
    "The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved Honduras’ request for emergency financial assistance related to natural disasters.",
    "The assistance is equivalent to SDR 47.5 million (about US$66 million).",
    "Purpose: to support the government’s economic recovery program and associated relief and rehabilitation efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch.",
    "Progress over the past two years included:",
    "Private sector confidence was on the upswing due to:",
    "A new program of stabilization and broad-based reforms supported under the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) was close to agreement, which would:",
    "Human and social impact estimates:",
    "Infrastructure and public services:",
    "Economic losses and growth outlook:",
    "Immediate priorities addressed with substantial international help:",
    "Measures to limit macroeconomic disruption:",
    "Once immediate priorities are addressed, authorities intend to resume discussions to finalize an economic program to be supported under the ESAF focused on:",
    "ESAF details provided:",
    "Honduras joined the IMF on December 27, 1945.",
    "Honduras’ quota is SDR 95.0 million (about US$133 million).",
    "Honduras’ outstanding use of IMF financing currently totals SDR 33 million (about US$45 million).",
    "[Honduras and the IMF](http://www.imf.org/external/country/HND/index.htm)",
    "[Press Releases](https://www.imf.org/en/news/searchnews)",
    "[PRESS CENTER](http://presscenter.imf.org/)",
    "[https://www.imf.org/en/home](https://www.imf.org/en/home)"
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