London/N’Djamena — Chad’s stalled talks with Glencore on restructuring more than $1bn in debt due to the trading firm has delayed the release of IMF funds for the struggling central African country until at least early next year, sources familiar with the matter said. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said Chad’s external commercial debt, most of which is owed to Glencore, was unsustainable as it eats up most of the country’s oil revenues. The fund approved just over $300m in credit for Chad at the end of June. The IMF initially released $48.8m to Chad but said the release of further funds would depend on progress reports at subsequent meetings. Negotiations are likely to be further delayed after President Idriss Deby sacked his finance minister, Christian Georges Diguimbaye, and the deputy. A Chadian government source said Chad had missed a mid-November deadline to report progress on commercial debt talks to the IMF, and IMF funds would not be released until early 2018. "Ch...
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