IMF Reaches Staff Level Agreement on the First Review of Barbados’ Economic Program under the Extended Fund Facility
May 17, 2019
End-of-Mission press releases include statements of IMF staff teams that convey preliminary findings after a visit to a country. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF’s Executive Board. Based on the preliminary findings of this mission, staff will prepare a report that, subject to management approval, will be presented to the IMF’s Executive Board for discussion and decision.A staff-level agreement was reached between the IMF staff and the Barbadian authorities on the First review of Barbados’ Economic Recovery and Transformation program (BERT) supported by the Extended Fund Facility.
Barbados continues to make good progress in implementing its ambitious and comprehensive economic reform program.At the request of the Government of Barbados, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) team led by Bert van Selm visited Bridgetown from May 7–17, 2019 to discuss implementation of Barbados’ Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) plan, supported by the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). To summarize the mission’s findings, Mr. van Selm made the following statement:
“Following productive discussions, the IMF team and the Barbadian authorities reached staff-level agreement on the completion of the first review under the EFF arrangement. The agreement is subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board, which is expected to consider the review in June. Upon completion of the review, SDR 35 million (about US$49 million) will be made available to Barbados, bringing the total disbursement to SDR 70 million.
“Barbados continues to make strong progress in implementing its ambitious and comprehensive economic reform program. International reserves, which reached a low of US$220 million (5–6 weeks of import coverage) at end-May 2018, have more than doubled since then. The rapid completion of the domestic part of a debt restructuring has been very helpful in reducing economic uncertainty, and the new terms agreed with creditors have put debt on a clear downward trajectory. The authorities have started the reform of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) by tightening reporting requirements and shedding excess staff.
“All program targets for end-March under the EFF have been met. The program target for Net International Reserves was met by a wide margin, as was the target for the Central Bank of Barbados’ Net Domestic Assets (NDA). The targets for the primary surplus, central government grants to SOEs, central government domestic arrears, and social spending were also met.
“In March, parliament adopted a budget FY2019/20 targeting a primary surplus of 6 percent of GDP. Full year effects of reforms set in motion during FY2018/19, including the introduction of several new taxes (an airline travel fee, room levies, a new fuel tax, and a new health service contribution), should help achieve this target. A broadening of the base of the VAT and the land tax, adopted in March 2019 in the context of the FY2019/20 budget, will help support revenue. The budget approved for FY2019/20 provides a solid basis for the targeted fiscal consolidation; the authorities stand ready to take additional measures if necessary to reach the targeted 6 percent primary surplus.
“The Barbadian authorities continue to make good progress in implementing structural benchmarks under the EFF, including those that contribute to an improved business climate such as a new Planning and Development Act passed in January 2019 and a Sandbox regime to regulate fintech start-ups set up in October 2018. A new Public Financial Management Act passed in January 2019 introduced wide-ranging measures to strengthen fiscal transparency and accountability. The government has also introduced a system for monitoring SOE arrears on an ongoing basis and has submitted a consolidated report on the performance of SOEs to parliament.
“Progress being made by the authorities in furthering good-faith discussions with external creditors is welcome. Continuing open dialogue and sharing of information will remain important in concluding an orderly debt restructuring process.
“The team would like to thank the authorities and the technical team for their openness and candid discussions.”
IMF Communications Department
MEDIA RELATIONSPRESS OFFICER: Randa Elnagar
Phone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org
IMF Staff gives Barbados Thumbs Up
IMF Reaches Staff Level Agreement on the First Review of Barbados’ Economic Program under the Extended Fund Facility May 17, 2019 End-of-Mission press releases include statements of IMF staff teams that convey preliminary findings after a visit to a country. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not…
197 responses to “IMF Staff gives Barbados Thumbs Up”
-
@ David ,
will you be creating a report card for the BLP 1st Anniversary as the Government?
-
Who believes corruption started in 2008? Corruption has been a political platform issue on since 76. All the BLP is doing is what every political party does on attaining office, rig a communications strategy to fashion an image that favours.
-
@Hants
There is no need for a scorecard. This government has taken several measures to stabilize the economy, however, it becomes a manufactured exercise unless there is real growth in the economy, improve infrastructure, a better feel in the social and happiness index. You get the drift. One year cannot realize the incremental improvements required given the state of play as at 24 May 2018.
-
well that is something on which we can agreed. you should aim to be more balanced without being forced so to do.
-
You can believe what the hell you want.
-
I wonder how come the news breaker has not rrported on the IMF giving Barbados a passing grade and the news we are off the black list.Wiat i forgot that is positive news and should not be highlighted by him or the other bajan canadian.After all the ranting and raving about White Oak the IMF who would have srutinized that deal along with all otbers concluded that the country was headed in the right direction.Congratulations to Ms Mottley and her team for taking the hard decisions wbich has unfortunately hurt some persons but which could not be avoided.Barbados will benefit in the long run in my opinion.
-
i most assuredly do
-
This government has taken several measures to stabilize the economy, however, it becomes a manufactured exercise unless there is real growth in the economy, improve infrastructure, a better feel in the social and happiness index.(Quote)
List these measures, start from one to two in sequence. The first anniversary of the Mottley-led government is one of the worst moments in the mismanagement of the nation’s economy since 1966 – a period of failure.
The period 1951 (Grantley Adams) to the first DLP government (1961-66) remains the high-water mark in our economic history. We are terrified of big projects. -
Hal the Senior Editor
So I am a liar for saying that you repeatedly berated UWI, its graduates and lecturers but bigged up British universities? Ok…I’ll leave that for BU regulars to decide who is the liar.
But you can still tell us about Northern Rock and how it was solved. -
Sargeant
Are you sure Freundel is still speaking or is it now Guyson Mayers?🤣🤣🤣 -
@ William Skinner May 18, 2019 8:42 AM
Your comments are spot on the ball. One thing I have been wondering about:why where the assets not sold off in the first place with out all the hassle that subsequently went down? -
@Dr. Lucas
How would the assets have been sold if the matter was trapped in the court system?
-
While “corruption” keeps creeping into the conversation I don’t believe that the focus on the decade starting in 2008 by the BLP Gov’t is corruption, the PM is targeting what she sees as mismanagement of the country by the DLP. Corruption alone can’t generate low FX reserves; Public Debt to GDP, Economic stagnation, NIS incompetence etc. We can debate about the genesis of the issues and whether it was made worse by the DLP or whether external or internal factors contributed to the disintegration of the economy.
Corruption is an easy target but it is not at the core of our problems.
@Enuff
Don’t know that they changed the headliner
-
David
How much of the “assets” actually exist and what is their worth? You remember the Judicial Report?#justasking -
@Sergeant
Corruption is a sexy issue that resonates on platforms be it hardwood, the Clico cheque etc.
@enuff
There was a big hole in the asset register found by the forensic audit if memory serves.
-
Apologists is what got us where we are today.
Everything, the good and the bad, can be explained away.
Moving from a black list to a grey list is heralded as a success.
Shuffling to get US $49M, meanwhile it’s US $27M here and $40M there. It’s three cards monte. Do you know where the money is going.
-
“and the news we are off the black list”
you were MOVED TO A GREY LIST…where ya were before for all of 2 months before being moved back to the black list…
Aruba was REMOVED from the black list…you and Bermuda were not.
stop lying..
ya haven’t even started working yet though drawing a salary each m onth, but the back patting continues…carry on smartly.
-
@David
At some point, the assets would not have been trapped in a legal quagmire. All of the clients could have gotten together and brought a class action suit and then divided the spoils. Wouldn’t the quagmire come about if there were more than one lien on the assets held by different entities who couldn’t agree on a common course of action? Wasn’t there some talk about the assets not being enough to cover the creditors demands? Shouldn’t the assets have been sold even if the creditors only realized forty cents on the dollar? The latter course of action is what the government is doing now with it local and international creditors. I have always held that the assets should have been sold and not one penny of tax payers money be used. -
@ Hal Austin May 18, 2019 4:35 AM
I have some trepidations about this visa thing. Our security service hopefully will rise to the challenge. -
BU can trust the schemers and the uninformed armchair political neophytes like ASSTIN,SKINNOUT and PEE GEE to ask stupid questions and makes JA’s of themselves.
Keep it up fools! -
@Dr. Lucas
Once the government went the route of appointing judicial managers the matter followed a certain path. What cannot be refuted and so that an audit of the assets revealed a big hole compared to what was booked.
-
@ Enuff
I just googled Straughn, it is an MSc in Econometrics from the University of Manchester, one of the Russell Group universities you often promoted on BU as superior to UWI. SMFH!(Quote)
Plse give the blog one example of my promoting Russell Group universities, and where I have said they are superior/better than UWI?(Quote)
So I am a liar for saying that you repeatedly berated UWI, its graduates and lecturers but bigged up British universities? Ok…I’ll leave that for BU regulars to decide who is the liar.
But you can still tell us about Northern Rock and how it was solved.(Quote)Plse produce the evidence. Which Russell Group universities have I promoted. This is not the first time you have said that. I am not surprised you hide your putrid lying behind a mask.
I have condemned UWI lecturers, but what has that got to do with Russell Group universities being better than UWU. I condemn people for talking nonsense, like the political scientist who said in the Nation there is only one form of capitalism, without a single voce correcting him.
I have questioned what has Frank Alleyne contributed to development economics after 50 years; these are all people who have entered public debate, nothing to do with the university. I deal with ideas, not institutions.
As you are on about it let me help you: where does UWI (Cave Hill, Mona and St Augustine) come on the Shenzhen University rankings? Has the economics curriculum at Cave Hill changed since 2008? If so, what are the changes?
For the record, since 2008, of the hundreds of higher education institutions in the UK (not all Russell Group), only two are on record as having changed their curricula in response to the global financial crisis.
Which British university have I bigged up? Do you mean the institutions that marginalise young black people? You are a putrid, verminous liar. Go and swim in your swill. -
While we can speculate over Clico, I for one am longing to see what the foreign debt restructuring is going to look like and what effect it will have on our billion dollars in reserves. Will we have to make immediate bullet payments followed by a longer payment period at a reduced interest rate? Will some creditors ask for part payment of the loans and then refinance the balance over longer periods? We need to now focus on the foreign debt restructuring and start looking at what it may mean to the reserves as a matter of priority. Remember we have 1 billion in reserves only because we have not paid any foreign debt payments for the last 12 months! The default gave us valuable breathing space, but the question we should now be asking is how much of the billion will be wiped out once debt service resumes, especially if creditors ask for lump sum payments up front seeing that they have not received a cent for 12 months and white oak has stated nor will they receive payment for the next 12 either. How big a dent will that place on our reserves?
We need to start looking at that dark cloud moving in called ” foreign creditors” as anyone not being paid for 24 months on an outstanding loan, will expect some form of lump sum payment to lodge against the 24 months of nothing being paid, prior to discussing an extension of an already defaulted debt.
-
@ Hal Austin May 18, 2019 1:01 PM
“I have condemned UWI lecturers…”
I have to agree with you on this point. I can only speak from the science aspect. As a matter of fact there was a letter in the press of the 6th.May 2016( Nation) captioned “Push scientific research more” by Mr. Wade Williams. Williams laments the lack of interest by UWI in promoting science and concludes that lip service is being promulgated by lecturers. I can speak from personal experience, All of my degrees up to PH.D have been done at UWI albeit in different faculties ( Agriculture and Chemical Engineering Department). There isn’t a thing wrong with UWI as an institution. There is however, in some instances some members of staff who leave a lot to be desired. For example ,there have been instances of lecturers supervising graduate students in area where they have no expertise what so ever. There have been instances where students have spent up to ten years ( not fooling around) in a graduate program. The supervisor keeps on changing the research focus. What seems to be the case in most instances is the fact that, the graduate student is seen as a cheap source of labor and the supervisor gets research done which may or may not have anything to do with the research program..This practice is common at a lot of universities but in a small society excess can occur. What I can say again speaking from a personal view point,when I did my studies any graduate of UWI could more than hold their own at universities overseas. I don’t know about now, but I doubt things have deteriorate to any great extent. -
SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife
May 18, 2019 12:04 AMThis is not a political DLP/BLP thing, although we may be led to believe so.
The technical work for the current zones was done in 1962.
Much has changed since 1962, including better equipment with which to do hydrological mapping.
This change should have been recommended and IMPLEMENTED 25 or 30 years ago.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There was a recommendation for the rezoning in the 1978 Water Resources Study.
My understanding was that it was combat chemical as well as bacteriological contamination in the water wells.
The concentration of bacteria once it gets into the water headed to the well decay.
Living bacteria dies off with time.
Tullstrom’s work from the early 60’s was targeted at giving a travel time of 300 days (may be wrong on this number) to any public water supply well.
It addressed solely bacteriological contamination.
It would be interesting to know what the new proposed zones are and indeed if they are different from those proposed in 1978.
I’ll see what I can find from my data on the “new” (1978 vintage) proposal!!
-
@ David May 18, 2019 12:55 PM
After discovery of some theft of assets, what remained could have been sold pending investigations into the missing assets. -
@Dr.Lucas
If only how we manage our affairs were so simple.
-
@Sargeant,
What fortuitous timing! Frenduel is scheduled to speak to the DLP faithful on that date and Mia will also be addressing the red shirt brigade. That should allay the fears of the blogmaster who expressed consternation at the notion of the DLP allowing Stuart near a microphone again. This is no clash of the titans, it ensures that Stuart will not receive any coverage.In case you didn’t hear, Frenduel will not be speaking at the branch meeting on May 19. The general secretary of the DLP will be make the address.
-
The diagrams I have from 1978 suggest the opposite of what is being claimed, ie, there would be more stringent regulation of more land!!
-
In the 1978 proposal there were only 3 control zones as opposed to 5 from Tullstrom.
-
@Hal, why don’t you spend your time worrying about your adopted country which seems to be on auto-pilot. The UK is so well governed that a political blowhard like Nigel Farage is set to lead a party, which is less than 3 months old, to victory in next Thursday’s EU election.
-
@Bajan in NY
Thanks for the update
-
@Hal A
You are a putrid, verminous liar. Go and swim in your swill.
++++++++++++
Weren’t you critical of the blogmaster for allowing unseemly language? -
@ Sargeant,
Obscenities.
-
@John
“I’ll see what I can find from my data on the “new” (1978 vintage) proposal!”
+++++++++++
I’m looking at the 2008 “Road Map Towards Integrated Water Resources Management Planning for Barbados.”
http://cep.unep.org/iwcam/documents/iwrm-roadmaps/draft-iwrm-roadmap-barbados/at_download/fileIt references Tullstrom but not the 1978 proposal. I’d be interested in your data from the 1978 proposal.
-
@ Sargeant
In case you have not realized, Hal Austin is MR. PERFECT.
He does not do anything wrong, he is always right and others are always wrong, he has never told a lie, never made a mistake, he is the wisest man in BU. To him there is a big difference between using obscenities to insult people and not using them.
-
Hal Austin
I stand by my statement, and as I said BU readers can determine who is the “putrid, verminous liar”.
Your problem is that you take yourself so seriously that you think you’re an expert on everything. You’re not, and you do not impress me! No expert would make such a comment: “A top end hotel is not – cannot – be in the public interest; in fact, in an over-crowded hotel accommodation market in Barbados, it cannot even logically be said to contribute to our tourism sector.” -
peterlawrencethompson
May 18, 2019 4:21 PM@John
“I’ll see what I can find from my data on the “new” (1978 vintage) proposal!”
+++++++++++
I’m looking at the 2008 “Road Map Towards Integrated Water Resources Management Planning for Barbados.”
http://cep.unep.org/iwcam/documents/iwrm-roadmaps/draft-iwrm-roadmap-barbados/at_download/file
It references Tullstrom but not the 1978 proposal. I’d be interested in your data from the 1978 proposal.+++++++++++++++++++++++
Check Public Library, upstairs, reference section.
Opposite Independence Square.
Ask for Stanley Report, Volume V, on Quality.
1977 Figure 5.4.2
1978 proposal Figure 5.6.1
-
@Sargeant
It appears from a distance that the hierarchy of the DLP have exercised some commonsense that should not have had to be exercised in the first place.
-
An obscenity as far as this simple blogmaster is aware is any utterance that may offend based on some prevailing moral standard in play. On a blog rum shop language is used in the same way some may use it in a brick and mortar rum shop. It is part of the lexicon and colloquial speak. Who don’t like could rh lump it!
-
IMF out of Latin America and the Caribbean
-
@ David
You are displaying a high level of ignorance when it comes to the rum shop culture. I drank almost daily in a run shop for donkey years and I can’t recall any obscenities. Quite frankly it was a meeting place of people mainly men who enjoyed pleasant back and forth without calling each other as you do RH and JA. You middle class frauds believe that wherever poor people gathered there was cussing and vulgarity. I brought water from a stand pipe for the first sixteen years of my existence and never saw or heard cussing and fighting.
You just can’t help your pretentious snobbish selves.
Many shopkeepers never encouraged bad behavior in their places of business.
Many refused to sell another rum to anybody that was drunk. When women entered they were treated with the greatest respect.
Stop comparing the excessive obscenities on BU with rum shops.
You delinquent social climbers always expose your profound ignorance when you attempt to expound on our culture! -
Speak for the rumshop you are familiar William.
Allow the blogmaster to do same.
Now have the last word.
-
Dependable and efficient delivery of safe water is one of the main goals of the WSRN S-Barbados Project. Through the accredited entity Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (5Cs), the project was submitted to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and received a mix of grant funding from the GCF totalling US$27.6 million and an additional US$17.6 as in-kind contribution.
-
I beleive that i was the first one to use the rum shop analogy with reference to BU; and in truth I did not mean cussing etc. I meant the sort of vigorous, circular discussions that occur in rum shops.
I have to declare my hand. My mother’s father was a rum shop keeper. The shop was right next to an elementary school. Some fellas may have stopped for a drop during school hours,, but I don’t recall any bad behaviour during school hours, nothing to disturb we diligent little ones. My mother worked in the shop on Friday evenings, a shop keepers busiest time. So yes I saw drunkenness, but even so an elementary aged child was safe in that shop, even on Fridays.
A cousin was also a grocery and bar keeper. Of course the shop had a side door which gave adults entrance to the bar. But even if a drunken man came around to the front, he moderated his behaviour. The shop keeper and the other drinkers saw to that.
-
coming out about fetal alcohol syndrome is very brave good luck on your journey
-
“Your problem is that you take yourself so seriously that you think you’re an expert on everything. You’re not, and you do not impress me! ”
Enuff
Spot on!
You are correct!!!
Keep digging.
-
David
Are you saying that political corruption, or the discussion of it, in Barbados started in (19)76, as above?
Sir William Skinner
It is certainly a profanity, to the sacred temple, to drink as much rum as you evidently did.
It is certainly a profanity to promote and participate in a wider culture where large numbers of men would have become addicted to alcohol and might not have been then able to provide for more primary accountabilities.
It is certainly a profanity to be so proud of what you see as culture when the medical costs of such will be ultimately borne by a public, the majority of whom do not so participate.
It is indeed a profanity to engage in the transfer of resources from small village shops to Roebuck Street rum barons.
Your continuing and misguided critiques of David are petty and unworthy of you. Do you have any such examination of your own standards, as you see them? Or are you going to be insistent that the you, and you alone, are to be some standard of ‘respectability’ on which a perverse Bajanism is to be maintained..
Yours is a false ‘respectability’ around which palings are constructed to hide a nakedness of ideas.
-
@Pacha
No!
Suggesting that it became fashionable from around that time as a sexy talking point by politicians to stoke the adversarial debate.
-
@ William,
You are showing your age. I have never used obscenities in front of my parents, grand parents, aunts, uncles or the elderly of the Ivy or neighbours in London.in fact, very few of my peers have ever heard me used obscenities, although I have done and still do. The thought has never crossed my mind, and I am not an angel.
The other thing is that my peers never called older people by their first (Christian) names. It is now common, for both black and white people; I used to order reporters on my team to address people properly; they thought I was old fashioned.
As I have said on a number of occasions, I was brought up in rum shops on both sides of my family, and your recall is correct. There were always children around the shops. People behaved badly in the streets, never in the shops.
In fact, if anyone got drunk and misbehaved my mother on her own would remove them. She was fearless.
By the way, ignoring this conversation, @William, I have just read your tribute to Leroy Harewood in the Nation in 1994 and it was wonderful. That, along with the one by Calvin Alleyne, should stand as historical appreciations of an exceptional man.
Leave a Reply to WURA-WAR-on-UCancel reply