By: Julius Konton
Liberia has secured approximately US$50.16 million in new financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after the Fund’s Executive Board completed the fourth review of the country’s 40-month Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement and the first review of its 21-month Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) arrangement.
The approval, announced by the IMF on September 28, unlocks SDR 19.3 million, equivalent to about US$26.2 million, under the ECF, and SDR 17.62 million, approximately US$23.96 million, under the RSF.
The combined financing amounts to about US$50.16 million and is intended to support Liberia’s efforts to preserve macroeconomic stability, strengthen financial-sector resilience, advance governance reforms and build resilience against climate-related shocks.
The latest approval comes as Liberia records stronger economic activity despite a difficult external environment marked by volatile energy prices, commodity-market uncertainty and declining donor support.
According to the IMF, real GDP expanded by 5.1 percent in 2025 and is projected to accelerate to 5.5 percent in 2026.
The expansion is being driven principally by strong mining production, alongside construction and manufacturing activity.
The IMF’s latest projections put Liberia’s nominal GDP at approximately US$5.72 billion in 2026, compared with about US$5.22 billion in 2025.
The IMF said Liberia has maintained prudent macroeconomic policies, while fiscal consolidation has continued with support from stronger domestic revenue performance.
The Fund said improved revenue collection has contributed to reducing debt vulnerabilities, while capital expenditure has accelerated.
At the same time, the IMF cautioned that Liberia needs to make further progress in rationalizing unproductive expenditure in order to create additional fiscal space for priority infrastructure and development projects without undermining fiscal discipline.
IMF Acting Chair and Deputy Managing Director Bo Li said Liberia’s authorities had continued to implement sound policies, allowing the country to make significant progress under both the ECF and RSF programs.
Despite heightened global risks, particularly elevated and volatile oil prices, Li said Liberia’s economic performance had remained satisfactory.
The IMF also emphasized that the Central Bank of Liberia should continue monitoring price developments and remain prepared to respond to inflationary pressures arising from global energy-price movements.
The IMF’s latest assessment indicates that Liberia’s economic expansion is increasingly being supported by the mining sector. Mining and panning activity is projected to grow by 16.6 percent in 2026, compared with 17 percent in 2025.
The Fund projects consumer-price inflation at about 5.9 percent at the end of 2026, although it warns that higher fuel prices could create additional inflationary pressures.
Liberia nevertheless continues to face significant external risks.
The IMF identifies higher fuel prices, declining donor support, commodity-price volatility and climate-related shocks among the major downside risks to the economic outlook.
Earlier in 2026, IMF staff also projected that Liberia’s current-account deficit could widen substantially, reaching approximately 18 percent of GDP in 2026, compared with about 7 percent in 2025, largely because of higher fuel imports and increased imports of capital goods associated with mining and construction expansion.
The IMF-supported program is also focused on strengthening Liberia’s external buffers.
IMF data show that gross official reserves increased from approximately US$475 million at the end of 2024 to US$572 million at the end of 2025, equivalent to an increase from about 1.9 months to two months of imports.
The Fund said the increase was largely associated with ECF disbursements and foreign-exchange gains from Central Bank operations.
The latest financing therefore forms part of a broader effort to strengthen Liberia’s macroeconomic and external financial position rather than serving simply as a conventional development-project financing package.
The IMF has also placed significant emphasis on Liberia’s banking sector. Earlier assessments found that while the sector remained broadly stable, vulnerabilities persisted.
The non-performing-loan ratio stood at 16.5 percent at the end of September 2025, above the regulatory threshold of 10 percent.
The Fund has called for faster bank recapitalization and reductions in non-performing loans to strengthen bank balance sheets and support private-sector credit.
Beyond immediate financing, the IMF has identified several structural reforms that will be critical to Liberia’s medium-term economic outlook.
Among them is the planned implementation of Value Added Tax (VAT) in 2027, which the Fund expects to strengthen domestic revenue mobilization.
The IMF also called for prudent and transparent management of the government’s one-off mining concession payment, completion of bank restructuring, stronger governance and fiscal transparency, and continued implementation of climate-resilience reforms under the RSF program.
The Fund has additionally encouraged Liberia to rationalize tax exemptions and strengthen the selection, implementation and monitoring of public investment projects.
According to the IMF, these measures will be important for improving the quality of public spending and increasing Liberia’s growth potential.
Liberia’s current ECF program was approved by the IMF Executive Board on September 25, 2024, with total access of SDR 155 million, equivalent to 60 percent of Liberia’s IMF quota.
Following the latest disbursement, total ECF disbursements have reached SDR 96.5 million, or approximately US$131.67 million.
The program is designed to help Liberia restore macroeconomic stability, preserve debt sustainability, strengthen financial-sector stability and improve governance.
The separate RSF arrangement was approved on April 27, 2026, providing Liberia with access to SDR 193.8 million, approximately US$265 million, equivalent to 75 percent of the country’s IMF quota.
The RSF is designed specifically to support reforms that strengthen Liberia’s resilience to climate-related shocks and address longer-term structural vulnerabilities.
Together, the two arrangements represent substantial multiyear IMF engagement with Liberia’s economic reform program.
Ngafuan: “We Will Make Sure There Will Be No Reversals”
Reacting to the IMF decision, Liberia’s Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, welcomed the additional financing and described the approval as a sign of confidence in the country’s economic reform trajectory.
“We are elated that our country has been approved to receive additional financing to support development and macroeconomic stability,”
Ngafuan said, while thanking the IMF, the Central Bank of Liberia, the Liberia Revenue Authority and other institutions involved in implementing the economic reform program.
The Finance Minister also linked the approval to what he described as confidence in the leadership of President Joseph Nyumah Boakai, while pledging that the government would protect the gains achieved under the reform program.
“We will make sure that there will be no reversals in the gains that have been made,” Ngafuan said.
The latest IMF assessment presents an economy growing faster than in 2024, when real GDP growth was estimated at 4.0 percent, following 4.6 percent growth in 2023.
Growth accelerated to 5.1 percent in 2025, with the IMF now projecting 5.5 percent for 2026 and around 5.4–5.6 percent over the following years.
The figures nevertheless underline the challenges facing Liberia.
Growth remains heavily influenced by mining, while the country continues to require increased domestic revenue, stronger financial institutions, improved public investment management and greater resilience to external shocks.
For the Boakai administration, the latest IMF approval provides additional external financing and reinforces the existing reform framework.
For the IMF, however, the continued disbursements remain tied to policy implementation and progress on fiscal, financial-sector, governance and climate-related reforms.
The September 28 decision therefore represents both new financing for Liberia and another checkpoint in the country’s ongoing economic reform program, with the sustainability of recent gains dependent on continued implementation of the agreed measures.
