The International Monetary Fund said on Friday it expects to conduct a staff visit to Gabon next month as part of ongoing engagement with the authorities, but added that no formal request for an IMF-backed programme has yet been submitted.
An IMF spokesperson said Gabon’s new administration had stepped up engagement with the Fund following a government reshuffle earlier this month.
“While the authorities announced their intention to work towards an IMF-supported programme, we are yet to receive a formal request,” the spokesperson said.
“We look forward to continuing to work together, and expect a staff visit in February to assess macroeconomic and fiscal developments and discuss the authorities’ policy and reform plans.”
Gabon has increasingly turned to regional capital markets to meet its financing needs, but investor appetite for its debt has weakened sharply, ratings agency Fitch said in December when it downgraded the country’s long-term foreign-currency issuer rating.
Finance and economy minister Thierry Minko, appointed at the start of the year, said earlier this week that the government would implement an economic growth programme “with support” from the IMF, adding that technical and institutional discussions with the Fund had intensified.
In October, Gabon’s then vice president Alexandre Barro Chambrier told Reuters the government was not considering a debt restructuring or reprofiling. He said authorities were in the process of rebasing GDP calculations, a move that could improve the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio.
