KENYA: IMF deal heralds return to international debt markets

Reforms under Kenya’s three-year USD 2.4bn deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) face political constraints. The Treasury’s fiscal consolidation strategy seems slow but may be gambling on a strong economic recovery and leeway provided by continued pandemic uncertainty. In fact, the IMF program could be an ideal precondition to underpin Nairobi’s pending return to the Eurobond market. On 15 February, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that it had reached staff-level agreement with Kenyan authorities for a three-year USD 2.4bn financing package. While