The International Monetary Fund agreed a 120 million dollar (95.2 million euro) loan to crisis-hit Tajikistan Wednesday, in a bid to help the Central Asian state weather the financial downturn. "I am pleased to announce that we have reached a preliminary agreement on a new three-year IMF programme under the poverty reduction and growth facility," Axel Schimmelpfennig, head of the IMF mission, told reporters.
"Under the programme, the IMF will lend about 120 million dollars to Tajikistan over the course of three years." Remittances sent back home from Tajik workers employed abroad in countries like Russia have plummeted as a result of the financial slowdown. The fund said it expected that remittances - which according to its estimates account for 45 percent of the country's GDP - could decline by 30 percent this year.