According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), two reviews of a financing agreement with Uganda were approved by the IMF executive board and will now allow for the immediate release of about $240 million to the East African nation.
The release of the funding brings the total disbursements under the arrangement launched in June 2021 to $625 million. In December, Uganda and IMF staff reached an agreement for the combined second and third reviews of its 36-month Extended Credit Facility.
The Fund reaffirmed its December predictions that Uganda’s economy would expand by 5.3% in the fiscal year 2022–2023 that began in July of last year, a decrease from the 6.0% growth forecast made in March 2022.
For that fiscal year, the government expects to borrow about $2.6 billion. Most recently, Uganda has been taking on increasingly large amounts of debt, particularly from China, to finance energy, transportation and other infrastructure with officials banking on expected oil revenue to clear the debt.