Demand for lending, support under IMF’s facilities remains high in 2026

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday released its 2026 Annual Report of the Executive Board, which covers the activities of the IMF in fiscal year 2026 from May 1, 2025, through April 30, 2026, and in some cases more recently.

The 2026 Annual Report, Navigating a Precarious World, examines four forces shaping the global economy: rising public debt, a surge of AI investment transforming economies and labour markets, trade reorientation amid an unprecedented energy supply shock, and the rapid development of stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, and tokenisation.

In FY 2026, the IMF continued to support its members in our three core areas: Economic surveillance: 138 country health checks (Article IV consultations and related surveillance activities) completed.

Lending: $40 billion in financing to 18 countries (including roughly $2 billion to 9 low-income countries). Capacity development: $400 million for hands-on technical advice, policy-oriented training, and peer learning. The IMF has continued to respond to economic challenges stemming from a series of shocks since the onset of the global pandemic, including through lending under IMF-supported programmes.

Demand for lending and support under the IMF’s facilities remained high in FY 2026. Between May 1, 2025, and April 30, 2026, new requests were approved for about (Special Drawing Rights) SDR 29 billion.

As of April 30, 2026, total undisbursed lending commitments and credit outstanding under the General Resources Account amounted to about SDR 144 billion; the corresponding total under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) was about SDR 27 billion.

IMF says AI could transform economic policy, posing new opportunities and risks for workers, countries, and businesses.

Artificial intelligence could transform productivity, investment, labour markets, and economic policy, posing new opportunities and risks for workers, countries, and businesses, according to the 2026 Annual Report, Navigating a Precarious World, released by IMF today.

In 2025, technology investments related to AI added an estimated 0.5 percentage point to US GDP growth. In addition, productivity growth in the US has accelerated over the past several years, which may in part reflect early impacts from the adoption of AI. Private-sector-driven investment in AI could top $2 trillion globally in 2026, according to some external estimates, making it among the fastest-growing drivers of growth in recent years.

As global spending shifts to deploying this technology across sectors, AI-driven productivity gains could accelerate across a broad range of industries and occupations.

But risks remain. Policymakers, households, and businesses are increasingly concerned about how AI will transform labour markets-it could increasingly displace jobs and depress wages for certain segments of the workforce.

IMF research shows that people with jobs requiring AI-related skills earn more, but cities and regions with more of these jobs are not experiencing overall job growth. Workers with AI skills are benefiting. So are people in low-skill roles-such as restaurant staff-who provide services to higher earners. Left out are middle-skilled workers whose jobs are highly exposed to automation.

The IMF is helping members guard against the economic, financial stability, and fiscal risks that could emanate from an AI bust-especially where debt is already high-while still robustly pursuing its benefits.

Stablecoins, digital payments, tokenisation change future of finance:Stablecoins, digital payments, central bank digital currencies and tokenisation are reshaping the future of finance and raising important questions for regulators and policymakers, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In its 2026 Annual Report, Navigating a Precarious World, released on Wednesday, the IMF said digital finance continued to expand its reach in 2026, creating new opportunities and risks. Stablecoins remain an area of renewed focus, progress on tokenisation continues, and many countries are advancing work on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

After years of development and experimentation, governments in major jurisdictions and financial sector entities are institutionalising blockchain and distributed ledger-powered technologies. The IMF said stablecoin growth has been robust, while their use in cross-border payments and remittances has expanded, although it remains relatively small.

Tokenisation - recording and transferring assets on a widely shared and trusted programmable digital ledger - remains in its infancy but is moving towards commercial deployment.

The IMF warned that stablecoins can become unstable if their underlying assets lose value or users lose confidence in them. Large redemptions could also pose risks to markets for government bonds held by stablecoin issuers. Policymakers are concerned about financial stability, currency substitution, including dollarisation, and financial integrity.

The Fund also cautioned that tokens could speed transactions too much, causing “flash crashes”, in which asset valuations swing widely and too quickly for humans to intervene.

Agencies