Chinese Government provides USD $8 million to IMF’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) to support multi-country COVID-19 debt relief program

In 2020, the Chinese Government committed a USD $8 million grant to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT).

This contribution formed part of an international fundraising effort to support low-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic through targeted debt service relief.

The IMF Executive Board approved the second tranche of debt relief under the CCRT on October 2, 2020, and China was listed among the donor governments that had already pledged support at that time. China’s contribution, valued at SDR 5.6 million, was subsequently applied to the CCRT’s third tranche of relief.

The third tranche, approved by the IMF Executive Board on April 1, 2021, provided SDR 168 million (approximately $238 million) in grant-funded debt service relief for 28 low-income countries. The relief covered obligations falling due to the IMF between April 14 and October 15, 2021.

The CCRT’s objective is to free up fiscal space in eligible countries so they can redirect funds toward emergency health, social, and economic responses to the pandemic.

China joined other donors to the CCRT, including the EU, UK, Japan, Germany, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Singapore, Mexico, Philippines, Sweden, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, and Malta.

As of March 2021, SDR 545 million had been pledged toward the IMF’s $1.4 billion goal to sustain the CCRT through a two-year debt relief window.

The 28 countries that received debt relief during this period were: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo, and Yemen.