Mozambique has taken a quiet step of enormous financial significance: it has fully repaid its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In just one month, the country paid around 630 million euros and, for the first time in years, has no outstanding credit with the institution.

The information appears in an IMF update covering the period from 1 to 30 March 2026. At the start of that interval, Mozambique had outstanding credit of 514,040,000 SDR (special drawing rights), equivalent to 630.1 million euros. At the end of the same period, the figure had fallen to zero — making Mozambique the only country in that situation among 85 economies with debts to the institution.

The payment was made at a particularly sensitive time, when the Mozambican Government has been negotiating a new financial assistance programme with the IMF for about a year. Despite the significance of the operation, the Mozambican authorities have not yet clarified the source of the funds used to pay off the debt.

In its most recent assessment, published in February, the IMF did not anticipate decisions on new financial support, recalling that Mozambique's outstanding credit had reached 226% of the country's quota in the institution. The report also stated that a post-financing assessment is scheduled for August 2026, as part of the regular Article IV consultations held in 2025, and anticipated new consultations within 12 months.

The document also recalls that, under the last programme under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF), the IMF approved in 2022 financing of around 468 million dollars. However, the programme was suspended in April 2025, after the disbursement of approximately 343 million dollars, spread over four tranches.

Before the payment now made, Mozambique still had scheduled obligations to the IMF: 98 million dollars in 2026, 107.5 million dollars in 2027, 129.3 million dollars in 2028 and 136.4 million dollars in 2029.

Despite the repayment, the IMF stressed in the same report that Mozambique remains one of the main beneficiaries of the institution's technical assistance, with support focused on governance, public financial management, revenue mobilisation, natural resource management, monetary stability and the development of economic statistics.

Mozambican President Daniel Chapo had already said, in June 2025, that he expected to sign a new support programme later that year, aligned with the current Government's vision and with reforms in the public sector.

“If all goes well, we will sign a new programme that can allow us to continue an excellent relationship with the IMF,” he declared at the time.

Expectations were reinforced in the following months and were reiterated again in early 2026. The IMF's Deputy Managing Director, Bo Li, also assured in Maputo, in May 2025, that the institution intended to move ahead with a new programme.

“Our team will work together. In the coming weeks and months we will discuss a new programme and we are committed to supporting the Mozambican economy,” said Bo Li after a meeting with the Mozambican President.

In April 2025, the IMF and the Mozambican authorities had already agreed to close the consultations on the previous plan and begin negotiations for a new programme, more closely aligned with the priorities of the current Executive.

Now, with the debt fully repaid, Mozambique enters the negotiations from a sounder financial position, while the Government says the IMF remains open to a new support programme, including financing for the State Budget.