The International Monetary Fund is open to providing emergency financing to help vulnerable countries with food security issues, or additional funding under existing lending programs, a senior IMF official said Wednesday.
Vitor Gaspar, director of the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department, told a news conference food security was a critical issue at this week's meetings of IMF and World Bank members, with additional financing needed by some nations, especially those already facing debt distress.
"If a country already has a programme with the fund, additional financing associated with food security priorities can be considered, and in case such a program does not exist, or for whatever reason the country does not want to use that channel, the possibility of emergency financing is also open to this type of situation," he said.
The IMF on Tuesday released its April edition of the World Economic Outlook report in which it said the ongoing war in Ukraine has "severely set back" global economic recovery. The IMF cut the global growth forecast by 80 basis points for 2022 and 20 bps for 2023. "Global growth (is) projected to slow from an estimated 6.1 percent in 2021 to 3.6 percent in 2022 and 2023.
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