The first tranche of the 450 million dollars that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) promised to disburse to finance the Mozambican State Budget until 2024, will be channeled this month.

"It will be disbursed this month - I think it's 15% of the amount, or less - to straighten out the State Budget, for specific expenditures," said Alfredo Mutombene, the spokesman for the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

The amount of this first phase will be to support the expenses related to the public debt that is, according to Mutombene, around 14 billion meticais, or more than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The IMF's main objective initially was to bring the trajectory of public debt within sustainable levels.

"So one way to do that is to look for a source of funds to pay for the capital services in interest," he said.

The IMF agreement states that the country cannot go in search of new commercial loans.

"We should always prioritize concessional loans, which are the cheapest and have the longest maturity, and also reduce the need to obtain treasury bonds, which are those that the state will obtain at the national market level," Mutombene explained.

The IMF announced this year that it would resume direct support for Mozambique's State Budget, which it had discontinued with the revelation of the 'hidden debts' scandal in 2016.