(Washington) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced in a press release on Friday that it had validated an aid program for Burkina Faso totaling $305 million in order to “strengthen resilience to shocks and reduce poverty. ” in the country.
The agreement must now be validated by the institution’s board of directors in the coming weeks.
“The economic program aims to restore macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability while laying the foundations for stronger and more inclusive growth,” Chief of Mission Martin Schindler said in a statement.
The reforms planned under the program provide in particular for an improvement in the efficiency of public enterprises in the energy sector, better mobilization of tax resources as well as the introduction of social measures financed by an improvement in growth.
They must also make it possible to create the conditions for controlling public expenditure and having the necessary funds to deal with the risks of a food crisis.
The country grew by 2.5% in 2022, but suffered inflation of 14.1%, a 10-year high and the highest in the Sahel, according to the World Bank. The national economy is expected to grow by 4.5% in 2023, while inflation is expected to return to 4.9%.
Burkina has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of jihadist violence that appeared in Mali and Niger a few years earlier and which crossed their borders.
The violence has left more than 10,000 dead, civilians and soldiers, according to NGOs, and more than two million internally displaced people over the past eight years.
The country has been ruled since last September by a military junta headed by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power after a coup, the second in eight months.
