June 8 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund's Executive Board approved reviews of Papua New Guinea's lending arrangements, unlocking about $163 million in combined disbursements, the fund said on Monday.
• The Extended Fund Facility and Extended Credit Facility arrangements were approved in 2023, to address a protracted balance of payments problem that caused foreign exchange shortages.
• The 24-month Resilience and Sustainability Facility arrangement, approved in 2024, for SDR 197.4 million,
aims to address risks to balance of payments stability from climate change.
• The sixth EFF/ECF review completion provided Papua New Guinea with immediate access to about $82 million under the arrangements.
• The third RSF review makes available about $81 million to address longer-term structural balance of payments vulnerabilities associated with climate change.
• All quantitative performance criteria and indicative targets for end-December 2025 and all indicative targets for end-March 2026 under the EFF/ECF arrangements were met, the IMF said.
• All six structural benchmarks due were met or implemented with delay.
• IMF sees growth in Papua New Guinea easing to 3.8% in 2026 from an estimated 5.6% in 2025.
• It sees headline inflation modestly increasing to 4.8% in 2026, with higher import costs partially offset by the extension of goods and services tax relief through end-2026.
(Reporting by Carlos Méndez in Mexico City and Lucy Craymer in Wellington; Editing by Chris Reese and Sonali Paul)
