Washington, DC: The International Monetary Fund (IMF), as Trustee of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT), and the Banco de España have entered into an amendment of their 2009 borrowing agreement (see Press Release No.10/50), through which the Banco de España will provide an additional amount of up to SDR 350 million (about US$483 million) in new loan resources. Accordingly, the total loan amount under this 2009 borrowing agreement with the Banco de España was amended to provide up to SDR 755 million (US$1.0 billion) for the PRGT benefitting the IMF’s low‑income member countries.
This amendment, made effective on March 3, 2022, constitutes Spain’s eighth loan contribution to the PRGT. It puts Spain among the first providers of new PRGT loan resources under the current two-stage fundraising campaign to support low-income countries’ financing needs during the pandemic and the recovery. Following the Executive Board’s endorsement, the Managing Director launched this campaign in July 2021 with a target of SDR 12.6 billion in new bilateral loan resources. This new contribution by Spain is in addition to the SDR 750 million (US$1.0 billion) it already provided in July 2020 under the first round of the fundraising campaign to address COVID-19 (see Press Release 20/324).
Spain’s continued support of the PRGT by providing loan resources for the IMF’s low-income member countries is a critical element towards sustaining the Fund’s concessional lending operations over the medium-term.