On Monday 5 April, the EU granted 141 million Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), equivalent to €170 million (US$199 million), to the International Monetary Fund’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT), the European Commission announced on Tuesday 6 April.
This disbursement is part of the overall EU contribution of €183 million to the CCRT, which was announced by the EU in November 2020 for debt relief for 29 low-income countries, to enable these countries to increase their social, health and economic spending in response to the Covid-19 crisis (see EUROPE 12607/10).
With this contribution, the EU (its institutions and Member States) has collectively committed more than half of the current CCRT pledges.
With the third tranche, the IMF has provided about SDR 519 million (roughly €626 million) in debt relief grants to the 29 eligible countries since the start of the pandemic.
The EU is ready to disburse the remainder of its contribution in the form of grants to support additional debt service relief under possible future CCRT tranches, the Commission said in a statement.
It should be noted that the institution has proposed an EU Global Recovery Initiative that would link investment and debt relief to Sustainable Development Goals (EUROPE 12659/7). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)