Press Release No. 14/602

Press Release: IMF Executive Board Approves Extension of Interest Waiver for Low-Income Countries Through end-2016

December 23, 2014

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved the extension of the exceptional -interest waiver on IMF concessional loans by two years to end-December 2016.

The Executive Board initially endorsed temporary relief of interest payments on all outstanding concessional loans for Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust-eligible members in 2009, waiving all interest payments on PRGT loans through December 2011. Two subsequent extensions of the exceptional interest rate waiver were approved by the Board, first to end-December 2012 and then to end-2014 (Press Release No. 12/505). The latest action that was approved on December 11, 2014 is therefore the third extension of zero interest applied to IMF financing to the world’s poorest countries.