Poland renews two-year 33.8 bln USD IMF credit line
2013-01-21 17:20:27
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday announced that its Executive Board has approved a successor two-year precautionary loan arrangement for Poland under the Flexible Credit Line (FCL) in an amount equivalent to 22 billion special drawing right (SDR),or about 33.8 billion U.S. dollars.
The Polish authorities have stated that they intend to treat the arrangement as precautionary and do not intend to draw on the FCL, the IMF said in a statement.
Poland has very strong economic fundamentals and policy frameworks. Broadly adequate international reserves and the precautionary FCL arrangement have helped maintain market confidence, said David Lipton, IMF's first deputy managing director.
However, the economy is feeling the effects of headwinds from the rest of Europe, and growth has slowed since early 2012. Economic activity is projected to moderate further in 2013, with risks stemming from Poland's substantial trade and financial linkages in the region, Lipton added.
The FCL program is available to countries with very strong fundamentals, policies, and track records of policy implementation and is particularly useful for crisis prevention purposes. The FCL is a renewable credit line, which could be approved for either one or two years.