A dozen countries in the Middle East and Asia are asking the IMF for economic help

A dozen countries in the Middle East and Central Asia have reached out to the International Monetary Fund requesting financial support due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a blog post by the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia department director, Jihad Azour.
Azour said work is ongoing to “expedite approval” of requests for assistance, especially for countries already struggling with other issues.
“This challenge will be especially daunting for the region’s fragile and conflict-torn states -- such as Iraq, Sudan, and Yemen -- where the difficulty of preparing weak health systems for the outbreak could be compounded by reduced imports due to disruptions in global trade, giving rise to shortages of medical supplies and other goods and resulting in substantial price increases,” he said. 
Azour did not specify all of the countries that had requested support, but said the IMF's executive board will consider a request from the Kyrgyz Republic for emergency financing "later this week."
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