Venezuela seeks emergency USD5 billion IMF loan to fight virus

Venezuela has said it is seeking an emergency USD5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, appealing to an institution it has long vilified to cope with the fallout from the new coronavirus on its already collapsed oil economy.

The request came in a letter to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva signed by President Nicols Maduro.

Venezuela is believed to be the first country to try to tap the USD50 billion in financing the IMF has available to help developing nations deal with the virus, and the appeal underscores the precarious state of the socialist government's finances.

But approval may be hard to come by if the US, which is the biggest shareholder and has a veto over major decisions at the Washington-based lender, balks at assisting a Maduro government it no longer recognizes and accuses of stealing billions from its own people.

The Bolivarian government is taking different preventive measures and following thorough, strict and exhaustive controls to protect the Venezuelan people," according to the letter, which is dated March 15 and was published Tuesday on Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza's Twitter account.

"For this reason, we are turning to your honorable organization to request its evaluation about the possibility of authorizing Venezuela a financing line of USD5 billion from the emergency fund of the Rapid Financing Instrument."