The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will send a mission to Mozambique in the coming weeks to study the revision of the financial assistance program, in the context of the effects of Cyclone Freddy.

According to the director of the organization's African department, "dealing with all the consequences of these disasters is becoming more and more part of the policy-making discussion we are having with governments".

Abebe Aemro Selassie, made these statements in response to the Lusa news agency on the IMF's assessment of the consequences of Cyclone Freddy for the country's economy.

According to the official, the IMF team will visit the country "in a few weeks for an analysis, in the context of a program review, where the effects of this cyclone will be discussed".

Mozambique was hit twice by Cyclone Freddy, first on February 24 and again in mid-March, which caused at least 165 deaths and affected more than 200,000 families, according to the latest official figures, or more than 880,000 people.

As a result of the effects of Cyclone Freddy, the company Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) alone recorded losses of more than 25 million dollars.

Meanwhile, the director of the IMF's African department recalled that the fund had previously guaranteed exceptional financing to Mozambique due to previous disasters such as floods and cyclones "and will continue to support the country as necessary to deal with this," he said.

The response to mitigating the effects of climate change was one of the priorities that Abebe Aemro Selassie pointed out for the region, stressing that they are "increasingly something that is weighing on the political decision-makers, on the region, on the people".

"Solving this problem, with the support of the international community, will be very, very important. The region is not a source of emissions, as you know, but it is being targeted by a lot of climate change," he stressed.

Another priority was to consolidate public finances and more proactive debt management in countries where debt levels are high, as well as to keep inflation on a downward path.

Abebe Aemro Selassie was speaking at a press conference to present the report on sub-Saharan Africa and economic prospects for the region, in which he predicts that Mozambique's public debt will rise to over 100% this year, despite forecasting an acceleration in economic growth to 5% in 2023 and 8.2% in 2024.

After Cape Verde and Eritrea, Mozambique is the country with the highest ratio of public debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the entire sub-Saharan region, at almost double the average for the region, which stands at 55.5%.

For the sub-Saharan African region as a whole, the IMF predicts in its report entitled "The Great Financing Squeeze", pointing to a financing shortage, growth of 3.6% this year, slowing down from the previous 3.9%, and 4.2% in 2024.