On July 23, 2012, the IMF's Extended Credit Facility (ECF) approved a loan of 138,800 SDRs, of which Malawi has drawn 119.3 million.
In July 2012, the ECF issued a loan of $156 million to prevent the depletion of the country's international reserves.
[4] Goals of the fund's intervention included reducing inflation, increasing foreign-exchange reserves, and enhancing financial services to improve the nation's balance of payments and encourage foreign investment.
As a result of a drought caused by El Niño weather patterns, the Fund approved a 49.2 million dollar disbursement.
[9] Malawi was the 20th country to be approved as a participant in the initiative, and once approved, Malawi became eligible for further debt relief from the World Banks IDA, the IMF and the African Development Fund (AfDF) under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).