A group of banks has agreed more than $545 million worth of funding to boost Congo Republic's long-suffering economy, officials have said. The oil-producer was hit by a sharp drop in crude prices in 2014, leaving it with debt of nearly $9.5 billion, much of it owed to China and Western oil traders and amounting to 85.5% of the Central African country's gross domestic product (GDP). The IMF agreed a three-year $449 million bailout last year, but the coronavirus pandemic is expected to cause an economic contraction of 9% in 2020, the government has said. A group of banks including…