The IMF Has Concluded its November Visit to Barbados

 

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed a two-week visit to Barbados. The IMF team, which was headed by Bert van Selm, was in the island from November 5-15 to complete its 2019 Article IV mission to Barbados and the second review under the Enhanced Fund Facility (EFF).
• At the end of the visit, the team issued a statement in which it confirmed that “The authorities’ BERT [Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation] programme, supported by the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility, is on track.”
• The IMF elaborated that all program targets for the end of September 2019 under the EFF have been met. The program target for primary surplus was met by a comfortable margin, which bodes well for reaching the FY2019/20 primary surplus target of 6 percent of GDP. The Barbadian authorities also continue to make good progress in implementing structural benchmarks under the EFF.
• At the conclusion of the visit, the IMF team and the government reached a staff-level agreement related to Barbados’ performance under the EFF arrangement. Barbados will receive another drawdown of approximately USD$48Mn.

 

(Source: Barbados GIS)