At the end of April 2026, the International Monetary Fund commended Sierra Leone’s economic progress under its Extended Credit Facility (ECF) program. Received by President Julius Maada Bio in Freetown, the IMF mission, led by Christian Saborowski, highlighted a remarkable economic performance, noting that few countries in the region or even globally had achieved comparable results in such a challenging international context.
The Head of State himself detailed the program’s achievements: two of the three quantitative performance criteria were met by end-December 2025, and all indicative targets were fulfilled by end-March 2026.
According to President Bio, these results reflect his government’s sustained commitment to fiscal discipline and prudent macroeconomic management.
He particularly emphasized the decline in inflation, the reduction in public borrowing costs, greater exchange rate stability, and improved fiscal balances.
These advances are part of a consolidation effort underway for several years: the domestic primary balance has strengthened by seven percentage points of GDP since 2022, driven notably by tax revenue gains.
This fiscal tightening, combined with a monetary policy tightening, has stabilized the exchange rate, reduced inflation, and restored private sector access to credit a point particularly welcomed for its expected spillover effects on small and medium-sized enterprises, often the first to suffer from degraded financing conditions.
In June 2026, the IMF’s Executive Board approved a new arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, while completing the third review of the ECF program.
The Fund nonetheless acknowledged that vulnerabilities persist, including low reserve levels and a high risk of over-indebtedness.
For President Bio, preserving the country’s economic credibility remains an absolute priority in order to maintain the confidence of international partners such as the World Bank, the European Union, and the African Development Bank; a condition deemed essential for sustaining a trajectory of durable stabilization.
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