Republic of Madagascar: Second Review Under the Extend Credit Facility Arrangement, Request for Modification of Performance Criteria, Financing Assurances Review, and Second Review Under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility Arrangement-Press Rel

This paper presents Republic of Madagascar’s Second Review under the Extend Credit Facility (ECF) Arrangement, Request for Modification of Performance Criteria, Financing Assurances Review, and Second Review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) Arrangement. Madagascar’s performance under the ECF and RSF has been satisfactory. The recent adoption of a recovery plan for the public utilities company (JIRAMA) and the continued implementation of the automatic fuel price adjustment mechanism will release space for critical development needs while helping improve energy supply. Recent weather-related events, reduction in official development assistance and the US tariff hike risk setting Madagascar back; they constitute a wakeup call. Moreover, weather-related shocks could exacerbate food insecurity. On the bright side, a more ambitious implementation of the government’s reform agenda and dissipation of external shocks could spur economic activity. All four continuous structural benchmarks (SBs) were met and one out of two noncontinuous SBs was met. There are two prior actions to review completion—related to the JIRAMA recovery plan and the automatic fuel pricing mechanism.