<\/p>\n
The IMF Executive Board concluded the 2026 Review of Programme Design and Conditionality on September 14.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The review examined IMF-supported programmes implemented between January 2018 and December 2024, a period marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflicts, tighter financing conditions and heightened economic uncertainty.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The IMF found that programmes responded quickly to successive shocks, helping countries meet urgent balance-of-payments needs and avoid excessively severe economic adjustments.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Countries that introduced timely and sustained measures rebuilt financial buffers and strengthened macroeconomic fundamentals. However, repeated shocks and implementation failures prevented other countries from restoring medium-term external viability.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The reforms are intended to make future programmes more coherent, realistic and responsive to changing conditions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The IMF said programme design should be based on credible economic and financing assumptions while considering the implementation capacity of individual countries.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fiscal adjustment would remain central to restoring macroeconomic stability. Most Executive Directors supported earlier adjustment where necessary and feasible, provided measures were realistic, growth-friendly and sensitive to effects on vulnerable households.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, several Directors cautioned against treating front-loaded adjustment as a general recommendation, particularly for low-income countries and fragile or conflict-affected states.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Future programmes will make greater use of risk-informed baselines, scenario analysis, contingency planning and regular comparisons with original targets.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The IMF will also pilot a Medium-Term Structural Reform Strategy to prioritise and sequence reforms directly linked to resolving balance-of-payments difficulties. \u201cFund financing should support, not substitute for, necessary adjustment and reform,\u201d Executive Directors said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Directors called for realistic assumptions about domestic and external financing, transparent debt management and monitoring of senior debt exposures in countries facing significant vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Programmes should avoid imposing excessive conditions and instead focus on measures essential to restoring stability. More extensive structural reforms should be sequenced carefully and coordinated with other international financial institutions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The IMF will also introduce more systematic end-of-programme assessments to strengthen transparency, accountability and institutional learning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Implementation will be phased, beginning with updated operational guidance, analytical tools and templates for IMF country teams.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Selected reforms will be piloted before wider implementation, with the IMF stressing the need to avoid excessive administrative burdens for countries with limited institutional capacity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–IMF\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":44013,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-46473","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved reforms aimed at making lending programmes more adaptable to economic shocks and better focused on resolving external financing problems.","published_date":"","news_description":"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved reforms aimed at making lending programmes more adaptable to economic shocks and better focused on resolving external financing problems.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46473","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":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46475,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46473\/revisions\/46475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=46473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}