CBK Turns To World Bank And IMF To Cushion The Economy

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) is running to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank for loans to help cushion the economy during the fight against the deadly Coronavirus.

The CBK is seeking 60 million US dollars from the World Bank to help the Ministry of Health battle Covid-19. CBK is also negotiating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 350 million US dollars for budgetary support. This offer has no conditionalities.

“The world economy is already in recession, meaning that even our GDP projection of 6.2 percent for 2020 no longer holds,” said Dr. Patrick Njoroge, the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya.

“We expect the World Bank and IMF support facilities to begin coming in at the end of April or early May this year,” he added.

The World Bank is also set to give Kenya 750 million  US dollars as part of its usual package to the country to help it cushion the economy against the effects of Covid-19.

Kenya now has 28 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with one patient said to have recovered. President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a raft of measures of Wednesday including a 100 percent tax waiver for individuals who earn 24,000 shillings and below. He also reduced his own salary by 80 percent.

During the last meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee by the Central Bank of Kenya, the Central Bank Rate was reduced from 8.25 percent to 7.25 percent, a 1 percent drop to help Kenyans access loans from the banks.

At the same time, the Central Bank of Kenya reduced the Central Reserve Rate from 5.25 percent to 4.25 percent. The CBK also released 35.2 billion shillings as additional liquidity to Kenyan banks to help Kenyan borrowers have access to loans from banks.

As the country continues to battle the deadly Coronavirus, the Kenyan economy is not spared and CBK said the effects have already started emerging. The challenging thing is nobody knows when this shall end.

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