A visit to Ethiopia from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ended without a deal last week, as Addis Ababa seeks a bailout to support the restructuring of billions of dollars’ worth of external debt.
In December last year, Ethiopia failed to pay a $33m bond coupon and became Africa’s latest debt defaulters. Earlier in 2023, Ethiopia’s largest single creditor, China, allowed the country to suspend debt repayments on bonds maturing in the 2023-4 fiscal year.
In November 2023, the Paris Club of international creditors also announced that it would be suspending debt repayments until the end of 2024. The Paris Club said that this was dependent, however, on Ethiopia reaching a preliminary bailout deal with the IMF by the end of March.
