Economics

World’s Longest-Serving President May Get Lifeline From IMF

  • Falling oil output and prices left Equatorial Guinea in crisis
  • Eldest son of Obiang regime accused of squandering oil wealth
Teodoro Obiang Nguema MbasogoPhotographer: Don Emmert/AFP
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Equatorial Guinea is seeking a loan from the International Monetary Fund that could help keep afloat a four-decade-old regime accused by prosecutors from the U.S. to France of squandering the tiny African nation’s oil wealth.

The IMF this week gave the green light for a three-year financing program to help the government of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the longest-serving president in the world, climb out of a crisis that shrank its economy by a third to $13 billion.