IMF backs President Ruto’s fuel price stabilisation plan
President William Ruto gestures while giving a speech during the Biennial Devolution Conference at Eldoret Sports Club in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya on August 16, 2023. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NMG
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has thrown its weight behind President William Ruto’s fresh plan to stabilise fuel prices through the resources accumulated in the Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) Fund amid divergent views on whether the government’s latest action was tantamount to a ‘subsidy’.
IMF, which propagates policies considered to be unpopular with the masses such as taxation of fuel, increasing of interest rates and removal of government subsidies on fuel in exchange for financing, said the latest action by the government to cushion consumers from high fuel prices through the PDL is not a breach of Kenya’s commitments under the IMF-supported program.
