⁠The International Monetary Fund will visit Mozambique in the coming months, a Fund spokesperson ‌said, as the Southern African nation seeks help shoring up its increasingly strained finances and grapples ​with mounting public debt.

Mozambique's sovereign spread — the premium investors demand to hold its hard-currency debt over U.S. Treasuries — ​traded at 1,304 ​basis points on Tuesday, a level typically associated with severe financial distress, data from JPMorgan showed.

Mozambique's previous IMF programme ended prematurely in April 2025, and ⁠the government has been in talks with the lender of last resort for a new one. Discussions are expected during the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington in April, the Fund said on Monday in response to questions from Reuters.

"A staff ​visit to (Mozambique's capital) ‌Maputo to take stock ⁠of recent economic ⁠developments and government policies is likely to take place in the coming months," the spokesperson said.

MOZAMBIQUE ​INCREASINGLY RELYING ON DOMESTIC MARKET

Mozambique's debt problems date back to ‌a 2016 hidden-debt scandal, which wrecked investor confidence and ⁠curbed access to funding. Delays to major gas projects that had been expected to boost exports, revenues and government finances have made matters worse.

A debt report released last week by the finance ministry pointed to mounting fiscal strain.

Public debt rose 6.8% in 2025 to 474.0 billion meticais ($7.49 billion). Central bank advances in the form of short-term loans to the government to cover budget shortfalls, meanwhile, surged 176.1% over the year to 49.6 billion meticais, equivalent to 10.5% of domestic debt at year-end.

A sharp rise ‌in central bank financing often signals stress in normal funding channels. ⁠In Africa, Ghana's central bank overdrafts eventually contributed to ​a full debt restructuring, while Nigeria converted a large volume of central bank lending into long-term bonds.

The IMF, in its latest annual review of Mozambique, noted that domestic banks — the primary ​buyers of government ‌debt — have reached their appetite limits, while net external financing has turned ⁠negative, indicating that outflows now ​exceed new inflows.

($1 = 63.2500 meticais)

(Reporting by Colleen Goko; Editing by Joe Bavier)