A "stronger-than-expected" mining industry is boosting the DRC's economy, the International Monetary Fund has said, revising the country's GDP growth in 2022 up to 8.5% after concluding a visit to the DR Congo.
Earlier, the IMF forecasted the nation's GDP growth at 6.6 percent.
According to the IMF, the DRC's mining revenues increased "at about 20%" in 2022, well above the non-extractive sector, which grew 3.9% in the previous year and is now only 3.2% higher.
Currently, the Democratic Republic of Congo is suffering 13.1% inflation due to higher food, energy and transport prices, the lender stated. The IMF wants the central bank to launch new reforms to tackle this, said IMF’s DRC mission chief Mercedes Vera-Martin.
In particular, the fund wants the DRC to stimulate its revenue collection, as well as to cut spending to "build fiscal space to address the security situation."
Among other things, IMF’s DRC mission chief's visit was aimed at discussing DRC’s economic developments, such as progress in reforms under the extended credit facility (ECF) in the course of preparations for the next review in April.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has long suffered from high inflation. In order to solve the problem, the country and the IMF came to an arrangement in the framework of an ECF.
The extended credit facility provides financial assistance to countries with prolonged balance of payments problems. The DRC and IMF agreed upon loans to an amount of $1.52 billion under the ECF program in July 2021.
In December last year, the IMF lent $203 million to the DRC. According to Vera-Martin, the loan was given to "help [Kinshasa] reinforce international reserves, given downside risks to the domestic and global economic outlook."
In spite of the ongoing armed conflict and terrorist attacks in eastern and northeastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the state's economy is expected to become the third fastest-growing in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the IMF outlook for global economic growth in 2023.
The DRC's real GDP growth hit 8.5 percent in 2023, according to the IMF, which is above that in the period before the COVID-19 pandemic.