Panama accesses another $1.3 billion to fight pandemic crisis

The Government has secured an additional $ 1.3 billion in lines of credit to deal with the crisis caused by the spread of the coronavirus

at the Monday press conference upsdating information on the COV-19  pandemic, the Minister Counselor for the Facilitation of Private Investment, José Alejandro Rojas , announced that the country had received approvals for three lines of credit with two separate multilateral organizations.

There is a  $300 million line with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to support the small and medium-sized business segment and the agricultural sector; a $500 million line with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ; and another  $500 million with the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a member of the World Bank Group, to cover health, safety, food, and employment needs.

On March 26, Panama was the first country in the region to go to the capital markets and placed $2.5 billion in debt and a law was approved with various measures to address the crisis, among which is the use of the Panama Savings Fund (FAP) as a guarantee to obtain a loan that the National Bank of Panama would request.