The second International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan to Iceland will probably be paid in August. This was confirmed by Franek Rozwadowski, the IMF representative in Iceland. The payment was supposed to have been made last February, but was twice delayed.
827 million USD of the 2.1 billion USD loan was paid at the end of last November. The remainder of the loan is to be paid in eight increments of 155 million USD each, every three months. The payment coming this August will be the first of these eight payments.
Rozwadowski told reporters that the delays were in part due to technical issues resulting from the restructuring of the banking system in Iceland – indeed, despite an international statement to the effect, a change in SWIFT code at NBI (formerly Landsbanki) has in some instances still not registered with American banks.
Rozwadowski added that there were also delays due to the election season, as the payment of IMF loans during campaigning is also a delicate matter, and it’s customary to wait until the votes are counted before making payment.