BLANTYRE, Nov 17 (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund’s executive board has granted Malawi a waiver after it was suspected of misreporting its foreign exchange reserves, helping clear the way for new lending, the IMF’s resident representative for Malawi told Reuters.

“The IMF Executive Board met yesterday, Wednesday November 16, in Washington D.C. and reached a decision to grant the waiver requested by the Malawian Authorities in connection with the misreporting of the Net International Reserves,” IMF representative Farayi Gwenhamo said.

“The IMF executive directors granted the waiver on account of the corrective measures the authorities have taken so far and commit to going forward,” she added in written responses to questions. “This opens a pathway to a new extended credit facility once public debt sustainability is addressed.”

The IMF and Malawi last month reached a staff-level agreement on up to $88.3 million in emergency financing under a new IMF arrangement called the “Food Shock Window”.

Earlier this year Malawi also requested a four-year extended credit facility to help with balance of payments difficulties.

The donor-dependent southern African country has been experiencing snaking queues at fuel stations that are running dry due to a lack of foreign currency.

(Reporting by Frank Phiri; Editing by Alexander Winning and Toby Chopra)