World Bank loans South Africa $750 million to fight Covid
What you need to know:
- The funding is a low interest loan that contributes to the government’s fiscal relief package while reinforcing South Africa’s decisions on how best to provide relief to the economy and those worst affected by the current crisis.
- The loan complements support by the International Monetary Fund, the African Development Bank, and the New Development Bank as part of the Government of South Africa’s broader financing strategy to access external financing from international financial institutions.
Johannesburg. The World Bank has approved a $750-million (660-million-euro) loan to support South Africa's Covid response and to bolster the economic recovery from the pandemic, the Treasury said Friday.
In a statement, the Treasury said the loan aims at "protecting the poor and vulnerable from the adverse socio-economic impacts of the pandemic and supporting a resilient and sustainable economic recovery."
South Africa has the continent's second-largest economy. The pandemic has left nearly 94,000 people dead, from 3.5 million cases -- the highest toll in Africa.
A series of lockdowns and health regulations hobbled the economy, pushing unemployment to a record 34.9 percent in the third quarter of last year.
Since the start of the pandemic, the World Bank has deployed over $157 billion across more than 100 countries to try to mitigate the economic fallout.
