LatinNews Daily - 23 November 2020

* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved Nicaragua’s request for US$185.3m  of emergency financial assistance to help the country “meet urgent balance of payment needs stemming from the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic”. This assistance is provided under two instruments: the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF), worth US$61.8m, and the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), worth US$123.5m. An IMF press release states that the RCF/RFI financing would help to “address urgent balance of payments needs, provide resources to strengthen the health system and support the population most affected by the pandemic, preserve fiscal space, and catalyse other concessional financing”. The IMF notes that the “authorities have taken important actions to enhance fiscal transparency, especially related to Covid-19 spending”, citing as an example the fact that the finance ministry “has begun to publish the details of all Covid-19 related spending and of all public procurement contracts on its website”. It also states that the government has sought the assistance of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to execute emergency spending, and that the authorities have committed to transfer half of the emergency funds received from the IMF to these agencies.

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