Fourth Review – IMF’s Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility for Barbados
Reproduced from the IMF Website – David, Blogmaster
December 9, 2020
- The Executive Board of the IMF concluded the fourth review of the IMF’s extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Barbados. The completion of the review allows the authorities to draw SDR 65 million (about US$94 million). Access under the extended arrangement has been augmented by SDR 48 million (51 percent of quota, or about US$69 million) to help accommodate the shock.
- Despite the challenges posed on the economy by the pandemic, Barbados continues its strong implementation of the comprehensive Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) plan aimed at restoring fiscal and debt sustainability and increasing reserves and growth.
- The prolonged global coronavirus pandemic poses a major challenge for the economy, which is heavily dependent on tourism, and is expected to have a large impact on the balance of payments and the fiscal accounts.
Washington, DC: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the fourth review of the IMF’s extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Barbados. The completion of the review allows the authorities to draw the equivalent of SDR 65 million (about US$94 million), bringing total disbursements to the equivalent of SDR 271 million (about US$390 million).
The four-year extended arrangement under the EFF was approved on October 1, 2018 (see Press Release No. 18/370). Including the augmentation approved by the Executive Board today, the extended arrangement is for an amount equivalent of SDR 322 million (about US$464 million).
Barbados continues its strong implementation of the comprehensive Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) plan aimed at restoring fiscal and debt sustainability and increasing reserves and growth. The prolonged global coronavirus pandemic poses a major challenge for the economy, which is heavily dependent on tourism, and is expected to have a large impact on the balance of payments and the fiscal accounts.
Following the Executive Board discussion, Mr. Tao Zhang, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair said:
“The Barbadian authorities continue to make excellent progress in implementing their Fund-supported Economic Recovery and Transformation plan and have swiftly responded to address the impact of the pandemic . Prospects for continued strong program performance are good, but downside risks will continue to pose challenges in the period ahead.
“A primary balance target of minus 1 percent of GDP for fiscal year 2020/21, revised down from a surplus of 1 percent at the time of the third review, is appropriate to accommodate worse-than-anticipated revenue losses and support spending on public health and social protection. The new fiscal target is financed by additional resources from international financial institutions, including a second augmentation under the Extended Fund Facility.
“The fiscal accommodation will be compensated by higher primary surpluses in the medium term to ensure achievement of the long-term debt target of 60 percent of GDP. Medium-term fiscal adjustment will be supported by continued reform of state-owned enterprises (SOE) to secure space for investment in physical and human capital. Transfers to SOEs need to decline through a combination of stronger oversight, cost reduction, revenue enhancement, and mergers and divestment. Pension reform and introduction of a fiscal rule will also support medium-term fiscal sustainability.
“Progress in restoring fiscal sustainability will further be safeguarded by a new central bank law aimed at limiting financing of the government and strengthening the central bank’s mandate, autonomy, and decision-making structures.
“A strong recovery from the global pandemic will hinge on accelerating structural reform, including improving the business climate and promoting economic diversification. Strengthening resilience to natural disasters and climate change will be key to long-term sustained economic growth.”
Barbados Underground 
The Barbados of yore is fading and quickly. What is Bajan has been diluted due to many factors. The question asked about who we are must be replaced with what do we want to become.
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“Waru jackass i do not go on other platforms.”
you CAN’T go on other platforms other than as a spectator, ya can’t even write a coherent sentence, what the hell will you being doing on other platforms………….to embarrass yaself and the whole damn island…..🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂
Fraudulent Fowl Slave Enuff…it’s all tumbling down and that’s the best you can do, when am not the worldwide laughing stock, ya should see what some are saying about the sellouts of parliament…..
“Has anybody noticed the UK Guardian newspaper has despatched two journalists to Barbados to investigate the Drax’s family plantation house and the families history on the Island.
This story is escalating in the UK.”
it’s needs to escalate even further, the marijuana slave plantations in Barbados must be exposed for the world to see, there has been a level of exposure already, but even more is needed.
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The fowl slaves should be more worried about what is coming at them in 2021, they ain’t seen nothing yet, the beauty is, they may not even really see it until 2022, just in time for 2023….🤣🤣🤣 tik tok..
when ya see stinky burnt Fowl Enuff and Big Lips Lorenza out sniffing around, something happened and they think they can cover it up or stop the blog from finding out..but i will make sure to make a bigly international splash…when it finally comes out…yall frauds..
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Lorenzo December 13, 2020 11:50 AM #: “The best present she could give this blog is to take her leave for about a year make most of us happy.”
@ Lorenzo
Anyone has a right to contribute to BU and it would be unreasonable for us to ask the Blogmaster to ban them or suggest they take a leave of absence from the forum.
Rather than fret yourself with people whom you do not share any personal acquaintance, sometimes the best method is to scroll pass their contributions.
It works for me.
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This is how easy it is to get community spread when pimping after tourist dollars…..small islands need to do much better and reduce the dependency shit significantly…this will not be the last plague..
“The Ministry of Health informs that a cluster of 26 positive COVID-19 cases have been diagnosed, originating from the Sandals resort. The positive cases include guests and employees, as well as their contacts.
The discovery was made following proactive testing of employees and guests on Friday and Saturday, as part of the Ministry’s continuous testing of frontline staff in sectors directly related to tourism, travel and health.
Given the health emergency that this situation warrants, the Government of Grenada, through the Ministry of Health, has deployed all efforts, including personnel and resources, to address this grave threat to public health, safety, order and the maintenance of medical and other supplies and services essential to life in Grenada. Unprecedented, aggressive efforts have been taken to further contain this outbreak of COVID-19.
The Sandals resort has now been deemed to be a place of screening and assessment. Entire households related to the confirmed cases have also been quarantined, and contact tracers are actively working to source other potentially exposed people in other areas of public life and activity.”
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Artax i usually scroll past the crap Mrs Mitchell aka Waru writes but she has become an annoying nuisance on the blog all day everyday.She seems to believe she has accomplished something in her 8 or so years on this blog but for me she is reslly a laughing stock on here as few people respond to anything she says even the blogmaster.IN MY OPINION WARU IS A MAD WOMAN AND NEEDS HELP . This is my last response to anything she says as i will take your advice.
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Big Lips Lorenza…i accomplished more than you or Fowl Slave Enuff to have yall really, really worried today…what have any of you fly by nighters accomplished, show me??? i dare you
anyway, yall sellouts only getting what ya deserve, ya can’t even write a coherent sentence, so how are ya expected to see what i accomplished…..🤣🤣😂…even if it falls and hits ya in ya empty heads….ya ain’t even got no shame and i can get you to respond anytime damn time i want, ah own ya dumb ass.
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Source: Nation
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Source: Nation
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Ask yiu self the billion dollar question what does barbados produce that can help ease the boulder of repaying such loans off the shoulders of the tax payers
Not even counting local ongoing govt debt
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We use to ask Sinkyuh the dame.
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@ TLSN
Have you seen Barbados Today lifting the Guardian’s story on Drax Hall? When one talks about the paucity of Barbadian journalism people think one is being harsh. But think of it.
A story about Barbados and the leading paper on the island lifts a try from a UK publication lock, stock and barrel, even the picture. This is not only poor, awfully poor, journalism, it is humiliating.
What is more, the readers either do not understand, or do not care. But this is who we are.
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A more stark observation is that a former journalist having spotted the journalistic lacuna would not seize the opportunity to offer remedy.
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Who does not know that journalism is a joke in Barbados?
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The big question should be asked is why did the tiefing minorites and both governments get away with TIEFING one billion dollars of VAT….yes, they stole the billion dollars too because they REFUSED TO COLLECT IT from business people…..and don’t expect it to follow them as a deficit, and expect the Black population they STOLE THE VAT FROM to now be slaves on marijuana slave plantations…when it should be the thieves working their asses off to repay what they stole from the people…not one black person on the island should turn up as any plantation slave to repay what the black faces and their wicked minority masters stole from them..
“Will NIS (national insurance) go up again? How do we plan to repay this money with nothing substantial on the horizon? But ah forget. Marijuana coming!”
BTW…so who has been farming the Drax caricature’s slave plantation, they never stopped growing sugar and subsidizing it with taxpayer’s money belonging to the descendants of the enslaved at Drax plantation. Black people will have to be crazy to even consider going near any of these savages…..of course no one minds if yardfowls are put in shackles and chains, i would pay good money for that event..
“Our children and grandchildren will still be paying them off. Ronda Norville:”
it’s up to the parents on the island to MAKE SURE that their children and grandchildren DON’T PAY BACK ONE DIME…let alone a billion of what those criminals stole, not a dime, use your brains.
“Our children and grandchildren will still be paying them off. Ronda Norville:”
“I can almost hear massa’s whip cracking again. (SAT)”
that’s what the black face leader’s worked hard to achieve over decades, pushing the population into poverty and slavery.
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@ David December 14, 2020 6:41 AM
Aren’t those home-grown patriots throwing a bit too much shade on poor Bim and her political administration?
Is that what the many consultants cum economists like Mascoll, Persuad and Ram (and even Kevin) have been hired to do?
To advise the MoF (with two economists for assistants) how to borrow in order to keep the greedy beast of conspicuous consumption fat and lazy.
Hope you are not going to be too upsettingly surprised when the BWA et al find themselves on the Privatization block as the loan-shark IMF starts to exact its pound of ‘payback’ flesh.
“THE GOVERNMENT’S HIGH DEBT IS CHOKING THE LIFE OUT OF OUR ECONOMY AND LIMITING NATIONAL GROWTH. WE WILL WRESTLE WITH THE NATIONAL DEBT AND BREATHE LIFE BACK INTO THE ECONOMY.”
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There is more than one way to skin sellouts, watch muh nuh….when they can’t repay the billion dollars they stole, watch how gray and old they will all suddenly look..
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@Miller
Did we have a blue print for the arrival of covid 19 on top of what all agreed – including you – was an economy in the pits? How do you expect the government to operate in this period? Printing monopoly money perhaps?
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“Aren’t those home-grown patriots throwing a bit too much shade on poor Bim and her political administration?”
everyone needs to take a look at the emerging BIG PICTURE..
in this current environment that they helped create, opportunity knocks for savages a la the spectre of Drax, sellouts of parliament and minority leeches, but NOT FOR THE BLACK POPULATION.
can’t say it enuff, but Black people now have the power in their hands to make them all CRASH AND BURN spectacularly…they are not to rise financially and socially on the blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors nor us, in these , nor at any other time….and if the population will take care of each other, spend your money with each other, develop opportunities ONLY FOR EACH OTHER, and rise together…those human pestilence will never rise again at Black people’s expense.
.but it’s up to the people to see it and implement.
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@ David December 14, 2020 8:42 AM
Your counter / defence would have more impact if the government was taking meaningful steps to curb the greed for imported conscious consumption like limiting the importation of ICE-powered vehicles for private use over 1300 c.c.; and even carrots from Canada or stale water in plastic bottles.
Let the importers and consumers of those luxury products find their own forex to pay for them and not rely on the borrowed IMF foreign money to prop up the country’s balance of payments position which only turn into millstones around the financial necks of future generations as many of those ‘shade-throwers’ are fearing.
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Really not interested in the Drax Hall story cause the outcome will be a Hell No answer to Barbados
Heard some one asked if Kamala father would be next
His Father owned slaves also and have land and property in Jamaica
Why isnt Hilary Beckles fighting the guyanese govt for the rights and proper treatment of blacks in Guyana
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@Miller
Have to agree with you on this point. There is so much room to do better. The government can say effective midnight tonight it will not be purchasing fossil fueled vehicles.
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The Drax’s family received compensation from the British government /tax payer after slavery was “abolished”.
How is it possible that the Drax’s family to still have claim to the old Drax’s Hall plantation? The government should intervene. The land should be turned over to those families whose ancestors would have toiled the land on that infamous plantation prison.
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TLSN…those house negros won’t dare touch the Drax slave plantation, have you ever been out in that area, everything about it gives off an evil aura…they took black people’s tax money and subsidized that crime scene, for how long is anyone’s guess.
the spectres would’ve been maintaining and upkeeping all this 150 years later, in one form or another after they fled with what they stole from African slaves, there are still descendants of those slaves living in and around the plantation environs.
..in my mind the sellouts see the Drax spectre as competition to their marijuana slave plantation scam they got going now, he may have to pay to play according to what Comissiong and Professor Reparations are saying in all their fraudulent outrage and anger….cause am yet to hear them say one word against these marijuana plantations springing up all over the place and none headed by blacks, or point out and resist Mia importing all foreign crooked whites as slave masters, not hearing them speak out against any of that total disrespect…but they expect sensible people to take either of them seriously..
the dude Drax got some nerve to speak about registering business etc on the island, let’s see how much respect Black people have for themselves…we already know the parliament sellouts have none
Miller…by the end of Dec i will have the fowls crowing and cryin real life tears..
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@ LSNDecember 14, 2020 9:36 AM
“The Drax’s family received compensation from the British government /tax payer after slavery was “abolished”.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
How about the “Cumberbatch” family?
And that’s the fulcrum on which any claim(s) for reparations must pivot.
If the owners of those properties (including their black slaves which were considered chattel) were told by the British Government to “F-off” since the possibility of losing investment in such a risky venture was very high then the owners would have to lick their commercial wounds while the ex-slaves ought to accept the moral scars since their African ancestors aided and abetted in their enslavement.
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@ TLSN
Come on. The £20m compensation was for the loss of the slaves, not the property, even though legally slaves were considered property.
Of course, by concentrating on the Drax family we are missing the big picture. In 1834, the majority of slave owners in Barbados were ‘coloured’ people, the descendants of many of them are still around and active in Barbadian public life.
W£e have had this long discussion before.
Plantations were owned by black people, and there was a thriving black business class that continued up until the late 1950s/early 60s.
We must also ask why when negotiating independence the question of reparations was not raised. Reparations is an issue now mainly because of our post-independence economic failure, not because of any raised political consciousness.
And some of us suspect that Hillary Beckles’ involvement is focused mainly on the UWI getting any largesse, similar to the deal it had done with Glasgow University.
We must not forget the all-important question when these issues are raised: who benefits? Will reparation, if any, benefit the ordinary man and woman in the street? Or is it just a moral issue.
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Flindt is back in business, the cakes are still as good as ever, left turn BEFORE the white royal westmoreland sign on the same left heading north on the highway, not the coast road, the one above….quaint little building, kinda cart roadish….
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Have been watching for the past couple months a very beautiful tribute African youngsters are putting together for our ancestors stolen and brought across the atlantic and enslaved, it’s so out of this world as it emerges, am still trying to come to terms with the ingenuity, thought, care and creativity involved, while they are hard at work paying tribute and creating a beautiful monument that will resound across the earth, Barbados is trying to reenslave the descendants and survivors to cover up the billions of dollars they and the minority thieves robbed from the people and country over the last 30 years,…..good going, i’ll be sure these hardworking youngsters hear all about it..
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But wait, Carsten is a white man? I thought you only supported black owned businesses.
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The government shouldn’t have borrowed a cent. Let everyone go home, businesses shut and beg for PPE etc. I bet yuh we happy owing the bank for cars, airline tickets and accommodation and house though? Bajans head like um bad.
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@ Enuff December 14, 2020 3:47 PM
So why were you cussing the previous administration left, right and centre for borrowing and fiscal bullying?
Remember the Credit Suisse loans, the SWT and NSRL?
But the previous administration made a cardinal mistake by not taking OSA’s timely advice to ask the IMF for a financial bailout just like how the current one has done.
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Uh huh cuz the two are similar. Wunna continue to underestimate the economic impact of Covid. You get in goood yuh heeeaaaar!
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“But wait, Carsten is a white man? I thought you only supported black owned businesses”
Northern…I didn’t say i bought the cake, it was offered to me and i ate it, I said that Flindt is back in business and the cake is still really good….do you know how expense those things are and if someone wants me to eat expensive cake, who am i to say no, a girl has to show some manners you know….and yes, i go out of my way to shop black, because it’s the right thing to do since this government pulled a nasty on the people, just like the last government and helped crooks rob the treasury and pension fund, so the right thing to do is try to uplift the black people who do business…
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Northern….life is strange, some time ago someone made friends with an acquaintance of mine, and only found out recently that this acquaintance is a die hard racist, they were appalled to find out, so now they know i got racist acquaintances too, am a friendly gal…
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We can only hope the people in US get to move on now, despite 300,000 deaths….apparently all the drama has offically ended, today is the 14th..
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-electors-46th-president_n_5fd7d5f0c5b62f31c1ff8809
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Miller….don’t tell me that repulsive Fowl Enuff is trying to convince yall that Mia is doing the people some favor by digging a bigger and deeper debt trap that she fully expects Black people to repay, ya should ask the fowl when she is going to lock up those who stole the billion dollars in VAT and those thieving hoteliers/employers trying to get away with not paying workers severance, and the DLP crooks who also helped rob the country and people……the know it all should have an answer…
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Beg or BORROW
Barbados appears close to securing $200 million in concessional funding from the World Bank after 27 years of being cut-off from such financing.
https://www.nationnews.com/2020/12/15/barbados-may-get-world-bank-loan/
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Nation Editorial
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“Beg or BORROW.”
wuhloss…yardfowls got even more to celebrate…more debt, deeper wider debt trap, wonder who’s going to repay all of that, the majority better get with the program, they don’t owe anyone anything, stop the nationalism and patriotism bullshit (it has long been a trap that too many black people are eager to fall into) or yall and ya children, grandchildren future generations will be repaying these loans, while the usual suspects continue TIEFING everything….let them go to hell, and find a way to pay back what they stole…they are the thieves, they always got a scam ready, let them use a few to find the money…..
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https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/12/15/waiting-in-vain/
looks like the cliff restaurant lied to these workers, expose them worldwide, they don’t intend to pay severance, they were the first to try to get away with not paying workers in March, they had some kinda inside infor about what was coming, these crimes against workers and their families should be indictable and carry 20 and 25 year prison sentences….
“Marlon MaddenPublished on
December 15, 2020
Months after being promised severance payments from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), dozens of former workers at the Cliff Restaurant are yet to be paid and vowed continued protests outside the benefits agency.
On Monday, placard-bearing ex-workers gathered outside the Sir Frank Walcott Building at Culloden Road to protest under the watchful eyes of police.
The group’s spokesman, Jerome Farley, later told Barbados TODAY that they were simply fed up of the “run around” they were being given.
“We were too silent for too long. We need our money,” said Farley.
He explained that they have been promised payment from the NIS since August when they delivered their severance claims there, but to date, they are still awaiting this promise to be fulfilled although he was aware of several workers from other businesses who handed in their forms since they did have already received their severance payments.
Farley said: “If we don’t get word by tomorrow we will be back at the Cliff and the NIS on Thursday to protest again,”
The workers were laid off in March from the upscale St James restaurant, but it was in July that they were informed they were made redundant.”
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“Barbados does not again end up with an unsustainable mountain of debt”
The author speaks as though the debt restructuring magically made the Nation’s debt sustainable? Maybe they should examine the expenditures which are producing that debt, and the associated cash flow issues.
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Only in barbados if yuh steal a 65 cent of loaf bread yuh would be hauled before a judge forthwith and sentenced
Onlyin Barbados the big hoteliers get a free pass from justice when they steal from govt and the workers
Along with govt handing over the treasury to these one armed bandits in back taxes owed
Then if that was not enough govt straps the losses owed to the treasury known as debt to the lowly citizens shoulders
This is who we are
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@Northern Observer
Maybe we should examine the underlying reasons for the debt, successive governments pandering to unbridled conspicuous consumption by the population. What did Michael Jackson sing about?
#maninthemirrow
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@ Mariposa
I have heard the nonsense about conspicuous consumption before. It is now a mantra and it seems to explain everything. Ignore it.
The author has nothing sensible to say. Maybe he (if it is a he) can explain how conspicuous consumption (current account deficit) will impact government debt, apart from equal nonsense about foreign reserves and even that is contentious.
We are in the position we are in because of poor management of the economy from independence to now.
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What is an economy?
âThe production, consumption, and distribution of goods and services are used to fulfill the needs of those living and operating within the economy, which is also referred to as an economic system.â
You always know everything.
Here is another for you:
âAn economy is the large set of interrelated production and consumption activities that aid in determining how scarce resources are allocated.â
A pity when you are on Michael Howard Facebook page and he posits the same vire you are as quiet as a Rh mouse. If you continue the blogmaster will just lift some of your comments to support.
#hypocrite
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Talk about restructuring barbados economy is an exercise in futility
The big wigs who control like it this way as long as there end is sweetened by govt hands and the poor pays the debt
The talk of restructuring would be an elusive dream as elusive as turning sawdust into gold
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Hi Braniacs,
Any thoughts. I believe in having a universal minimum wage and then sectors can do more then so be it.
Disagree with first section. Agrees with the second.
DofBU 6:49 a.m.
“I feel each sector should have a national minimum wage which reflects its productivity. You don’t want a sector which has low productivity to have a minimum wage which would be inconsistent with that productivity.
“It’s just not a matter of sitting down in a meeting and talking. People have to research wages, productivity and employee preferences on what the minimum wage is. It should not be a political wage; it has to rely on research because these other matters are intimately interwoven with wages, unemployment and productivity,” Howard added.
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Every decision is soaked in the political in Barbados, this is our problem. it goes without saying a minimum wage must be driven by the numbers and how we want to drive productivity etc. Howard is on point.
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Source: Nation
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Source: Nation
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