CEMAC countries likely to seek IMF support program to ease current economic crisis

The International Monetary Funds has initiated potential programmes in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) to ease some of the pressures created by lower oil prices.

This follows December’s emergency meeting, when the six CEMAC heads of states committed to correct fiscal imbalances and contain further declines in the zone’s foreign-currency reserves.

Lower oil prices have created twin deficits in the three Fitch-rated CEMAC sovereigns, increasing government debt burdens and eroding foreign-currency reserves.

IMF vowed to support CEMAC members to bolster the zone’s exchange-rate peg to the euro.

However, the monetary body indicated that some countries within the CEMAC zone might find it difficult to implement dramatic fiscal tightening in the face of weak growth and a possible re-emergence of social unrest.

The six-member CEMAC block is made up of Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, DRC, Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea.