The International Monetary Fund is preparing a new credit line for Ecuador as the nation faces a selloff in crude oil and one of Latin America’s worst Covid-19 outbreaks, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Washington-based lender is discussing a loan of about $250 million as part of the South American nation’s rapid financing instrument, as well as further funding through a successor accord, said the people, who requested anonymity because the talks are private.
Ecuador, which once went 180 years without repaying a bond, needs to finance a budget gap that some analysts have estimated will reach as much as $8 billion this year. President Lenin Moreno’s administration is also starting restructuring talks with bondholders this week and negotiating the final terms of a loan from China as it battles a pandemic that has cost at least 3,400 lives.
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