After a seven-month wait, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has finally set a date for making a decision on a financial aid package for Suriname.

The IMF has set December 22 for when its executive board will meet to discuss and hopefully grant approval to a three-year extended fund facility for Suriname.

This comes more than seven months after the multilateral funding agency reached a staff-level agreement with the government of the South American country with the negotiations lasting for more than a year.

Suriname and the IMF, in April, reached a preliminary financing deal for US$690 million.

If approved by the IMF Executive Board, over US$56.4 million would be immediately available for Suriname to drawdown.

A crucial sticking point in the negotiations was Suriname’s challenge in containing its debt high position that the IMF deemed it necessary to provide hard financial guarantees from bilateral creditors.

However, with subsequent consultations, this requirement has been relaxed.