The executive board of the International Monetary Fund has approved the extension of $115 million in debt relief to 25 eligible low-income countries.

In a statement seen by Peoples Gazette on Tuesday, the fund disclosed that it extended the debt relief from January 11 to April 13, 2022, to help the countries ride out ‘pandemic-induced headwinds’.

IMF said the approval of the fifth and final tranche of debt service relief would bring the two-year COVID-19 related Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) to $964 million.

The fresh approval follows four prior tranches approved on April 13, 2020, October 2, 2020, and April 1 and October 6, 2021.

“This helps free up scarce financial resources for vital health, social and economic support to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” the fund said.

Countries to benefit from the debt service relief in the fifth tranche under the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust include Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, and Tajikistan.

The fund in its 2020 global debt database disclosed that global debt soared to $226 trillion, rising by 28 percentage points to 256 per cent of gross domestic product.

In the wake of the pandemic, IMF had commenced an urgent fundraising effort to raise $1.4 billion in grants to help the CCRT provide debt relief for up to a maximum of two years.

The fund disclosed that the European Union, the UK, Japan, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Singapore, Greece, China, Mexico, the Philippines, Sweden, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Malta, and Indonesia pledged about $852 million.