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QUITO, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno on Wednesday announced the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a 6.5-billion-U.S.-dollar loan agreement reached at the end of August.

"A few minutes ago I had a conversation with people from the International Monetary Fund and I can tell you that the IMF loan was unanimously approved today," Moreno told reporters at the government headquarters in Quito.

It is "excellent news" for the South American nation experiencing economic difficulties due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

According to Moreno, an initial disbursement of 2 billion dollars will be made on Friday.

Ecuador and the IMF reached a 27-month loan program on Aug. 28 to support the country's economic recovery.

Moreno said he called a cabinet meeting on Wednesday "to analyze the destination of resources and be able to channel, mainly, to those sectors that have been much more affected in these difficult times of pandemic we have been going through."

Ecuador has Latin America's eighth largest COVID-19 outbreak, with 137,047 cases of infection and 7,546 deaths from the disease, according to the Ministry of Public Health. Enditem