January 23, 2026
PRESS OFFICER: Rahim Kanani
Phone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org
Washington DC: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team, led by Mr. Ruud Vermeulen, held meetings in Moroni from October 27 – November 7, to discuss progress on economic and financial policies and reforms in the context of the fifth review of the 4-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF)-supported program and the 2025 Article IV Consultation. Review discussions continued virtually leading to a staff-level agreement between the Comorian authorities and the IMF team, subject to approval by the IMF’s Management and Executive Board. Completing the review will make available SDR 3.56 million (about US$4.87 million) to Comoros, bringing total disbursements so far under the arrangement to about $28.57 million.
Today, Mr. Vermeulen issued the following statement:
“Economic activity continued to strengthen in the first three quarters of 2025, supported by robust domestic credit growth and easing inflation pressures. Headline inflation, which peaked at 7.3 percent (year-on-year) in March, declined to 1.9 percent in October. Despite the good tax revenue performance in the first half of 2025, unbudgeted social transfer spending and faster execution of domestically financed capital expenditure led to a widening of the domestic primary deficit by 0.2 percentage points of GDP vis-à-vis the end-June 2025 target. The external position remains sound, supported by resilient remittances, and an adequate level of international reserves covering around seven months of imports. Financial sector vulnerabilities persist despite continued efforts to strengthen the supervision and regulatory frameworks.
“Performance under the ECF-supported program has improved, with three out of five quantitative targets for end-June 2025 met and stronger structural reform implementation. Although the end-June tax revenue target was met, non-tax revenue underperformance and spending overruns—driven by unbudgeted social transfers related to severance payments for airport workers laid off following a concession and an acceleration in domestically-financed investment—led to a moderate slippage relative to the primary balance target. Continued challenges with liquidity and cash management resulted in the accumulation of new external arrears, albeit small and temporary. Meanwhile, the implementation of structural reforms has progressed steadily with the authorities meeting thirteen out of fifteen structural benchmarks due between end-June and end-December 2025.
“The authorities are implementing corrective actions for the missed targets to safeguard the fiscal adjustment envisaged under the program. High quality fiscal measures and collection of tax arrears will boost revenue collection and bring the fiscal consolidation back on track in 2026. Additionally, the external debt service arrears accumulated since September have been cleared, while efforts have been made to remain current on all debt service payments.
“Discussions with the authorities addressed the need to ensure that the program remains on track, sustain the reform momentum and advance structural reforms to strengthen domestic revenue mobilization, improve public financial management, and address financial sector vulnerabilities. In this context, the mission welcomed the substantial and structural revenue mobilization effort reflected in the 2026 budget, as well as ongoing efforts to enhance cash, liquidity, and debt management and to curtail net domestic financing in line with the budget while improving its monitoring. The mission underscored risks related to public-private partnerships—in the context of remaining spending pressures from the airport concession and financing options for the 2027 Indian Ocean Island games—and the need to mitigate them. The mission also discussed progress in financial sector and governance reforms, including operationalizing the Banque Postale des Comores and implementing the 2023 anti-corruption law.
“Comoros remains exposed to structural fragilities common among small island economies. Continued implementation of the ECF-supported program is vital for sustaining stability, advancing core reforms, and attracting further external financing. The authorities have reaffirmed their strong commitment to the program.
“The mission team met with the Secretary General of the Government Nour El Fath Azali, Minister of Finance Ibrahim Mohamed Abdourazak, Central Bank Governor Younoussa Imani, and other senior government officials. The team also met with commercial banks, the Chamber of Commerce, the donor community, and other important stakeholders. The IMF team is grateful to the authorities and all other counterparts for the excellent cooperation, as well as the candid and constructive discussions.”
