IMF to loan millions to Angola
The International Monetary Fund has drawn up a preliminary agreement with Angola to grant up to US$890 million in loans. The deal, announced on Tuesday, 29 September 2009, will help alleviate the country's immediate cash flow pressures, the IMF said.
Angola has been suffering from falling oil prices as a result of the global economic downturn last year. Despite being one of the largest oil producers in Africa, two thirds of Angolans still live on less than two dollars a day. The IMF's stand-by credit facility deal is the first in the country since the end of its 27-year civil war in 2002. The deal marks an improvement in relations between Angola and the IMF two years after Angola broke off talks with the organisation, borrowing billions of dollars from China in oil-backed loans instead.
Source: Panos London
