IMF: Chad’s bilateral creditors to improve debt relief offer if needed

IMF: Chad’s bilateral creditors to improve debt relief offer if needed

JOHANNESBURG - Chad's official bilateral creditors will make up any shortfall in commitments from its private lenders to a plan to cut the country's debt servicing costs if those costs become unmanageable, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.

The official creditors - China, France, Saudi Arabia and India - are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on a debt agreement for the oil-rich, central African nation in coming days, the IMF said in a report released late on Thursday.

In November Chad reached an agreement, first reported by Reuters, with creditors also including Swiss commodities trader Glencore, paving the way for more IMF funding but stopping short of reducing the country's $2.9 billion in external debt.

Under that deal, the first reached under the Group of 20 leading economies' Common Framework restructuring process, creditors agreed to reconvene to discuss debt relief if oil prices fell far enough to make Chad's debts unmanageable.

Should private creditor contributions to such an arrangement not bring Chad's debt servicing costs to below 14% of state revenues, "official creditors will contribute (more) in proportion of the debt service due to each official bilateral creditor," the IMF report said.

In 2021, Glencore and other private creditors baulked at signing up