IMF approves $4bn loan to Ecuador
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced today that it has reached an agreement with Ecuador for a loan of about 4,000 million dollars (3,7 billion euros) in four years.
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Economia Equador
The deal is still subject to the approval of the IMF board.
The IMF's mission chief to Ecuador, Varapat Chensavasdijai, said that "the [Ecuadorian] authorities have developed a strong plan and have begun to take important policy actions to address the fiscal and liquidity situation."
Ecuador's President, Daniel Noboa, and the IMF had announced in early March that they were negotiating the terms of the loan.
As part of the negotiations, the Fund asked Noboa to ensure that Ecuador's macroeconomic and fiscal sustainability.
In one of his latest measures, Noboa decreed the increase of the Value Added Tax (VAT) to 15% from April 1, as he had announced after managing to get approval for the reform that allowed him to raise the rate to that level.
The reform that Noboa got approved raised the VAT from 12% to 13%, but allowed the President to increase it to 15%, following a favorable report from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, a measure with which he hopes to increase the state's revenue by about $1.3 billion (€1.2 billion).
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