WATCH| Everything you should know about the R70bn IMF loan to SA

The national treasury announced that the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) board had approved the government's request for “emergency financial support” to the tune of $4.3bn (about R70.58bn at current exchange rates).

The loan would “help the country mitigate the adverse social and economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic”, it said. “The additional IMF funding is a low-interest loan that contributes to the government’s fiscal relief package while respecting South Africa’s decisions on how best to provide relief to the economy and those worst affected by the current crisis,” the treasury said. 

Finance minister Tito Mboweni said: “Government’s Covid-19 economic support package directs R500bn straight at the problem."

This is one of the largest economic response packages in the developing world.

The treasury said the relief package, of which the IMF loan forms part, would support health and frontline services, protect the most vulnerable, drive job creation, unlock economic growth through reforms and stabilise public debt, among other things.

Mudiwa Gavaza, a Business Day and Financial Mail reporter, gives us the full break down about the IMF loan.