{"id":22810,"date":"2026-01-23T15:08:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/imf-expects-staff-visit-to-gabon-in-february-despite-no-formal-request-for-programme\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:43","slug":"imf-expects-staff-visit-to-gabon-in-february-despite-no-formal-request-for-programme-2","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/imf-expects-staff-visit-to-gabon-in-february-despite-no-formal-request-for-programme-2\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF expects staff visit to Gabon in February despite no formal request for programme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects to carry out a staff visit to Gabon next month as part of ongoing work with the Gabonese authorities, but no formal request for a programme has been made, a Fund Spokesperson said this Friday.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Gabon has become increasingly reliant on regional capital markets to meet its financing needs, though appetite for its debt &#8220;has weakened substantially&#8221;, ratings agency Fitch said in December, when it downgraded the central African country&#8217;s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Thierry Minko, who was appointed finance and economy minister at the start of the year, said earlier this week that the government would implement an economic growth programme &#8220;with support&#8221; from the IMF, and that technical and institutional discussions with the Fund had intensified.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>An IMF Spokesperson said Gabon&#8217;s new administration had &#8220;stepped up engagement&#8221; with the Fund following this month&#8217;s government reshuffle.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While the authorities announced their intention to work towards an IMF-supported programme, we are yet to receive a formal request,&#8221; the Spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We look forward to continuing to work together, and expect a staff visit in February to assess macroeconomic and fiscal developments and discuss the authorities\u2019 policy and reform plans.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In October, Gabon&#8217;s then-Vice President Alexandre Barro Chambrier told <em>Reuters<\/em> that the government was not considering a debt restructuring or reprofiling. He said Gabon was in the process of rebasing its calculations of gross domestic product (GDP), which would make its debt-to-GDP ratio more favourable.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13342,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,44],"class_list":["post-22810","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"IMF expects to carry out a staff visit to Gabon next month as part of ongoing work with the Gabonese authorities","published_date":"2026-01-23 17:07:30","news_description":"IMF expects to carry out a staff visit to Gabon next month as part of ongoing work with the Gabonese authorities","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27255,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22810\/revisions\/27255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}