An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team on Tuesday announced it had concluded a six-day visit to Kenya where it held discussions on the recent developments in the country.
In a statement issued by the Bretton Woods Institution, the discussions were centred around policies and reforms to address the emerging economic and fiscal challenges.
According to the IMF team leader Haimanot Teferra, during the meeting, President William Ruto’s administration expressed its commitment to making economic and governance reforms to fit the Fund’s recommendations.
“The Kenyan authorities and IMF staff had productive discussions on the authorities’ policies and reforms to address the evolving economic and fiscal challenges,” read part of the statement by IMF.
President William Ruto during a meeting with IMF officials and officials from the Kenyan national treasury at State House in Nairobi on November 13, 2023
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During the discussions, the IMF on the other hand pledged to support the country in its efforts to identify a set of policies that would accelerate the completion of the reviews under the ongoing programs.
In 2023, Kenya began discussions with the Fund for additional lending of Ksh464 billion ($3.6 billion) to support climate change measures.
After several months of deliberations, the IMF reached a staff-level agreement with Kenya in June this year for the disbursement of the multi-billion funds.
In a statement shared by the IMF in June, the multilateral lender noted that the agreement was reached after Kenya nodded to the Fund’s fiscal recommendations.
“Key policy actions entail corrective measures to safeguard debt sustainability, including measures underpinning the FY2024/25 budget to reverse the impact from the fiscal slippage in FY2023/24,” IMF noted in a statement.
However, Kenya’s access to the multi-billion loan was hampered following the anti-government demonstrations that took place in mid-June.
Kenyans took to the streets in their thousands to demonstrate against the defunct Finance Bill 2024 which had proposed a raft of tax measures.
The protests forced President William Ruto to drop the piece of legislation, consequently impacting the planned disbursement of the Ksh464 billion loan.
President William Ruto (left) during a round-table with President of France Emmanuel Macron, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and the President of the World Bank Group Ajay Banga in Paris on June 22, 2023.
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