The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today warned that a second phase of measures will be needed, in light of the $1.2 billion austerity package announced by Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mia Mottley in her June 11 Budget.
The warning came at the end of a ten-day visit to the island by an IMF staff team, led by Bert van Selm, which held discussions with various stakeholders on a pending IMF-supported economic recovery and transformation plan.
In a release today, the IMF also revealed that this next phase of adjustment would focus on reducing expenditures “by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public services, reducing Government transfers to state-owned enterprises, by reviewing user fees, exploring options for mergers, and providing stronger oversight”.
Following is the full statement issued at the conclusion of the July 2- 12 visit, which came at the request of the newly elected Mia Mottley-led Government .
“The Barbadian authorities, in close consultation with their social partners, are taking effective steps to address current economic vulnerabilities. The IMF stands ready to partner with Barbados to restore macroeconomic stability in order to secure strong, durable and inclusive growth in the years ahead.
“Fiscal consolidation alongside a comprehensive debt restructuring exercise is critical for restoring debt sustainability and policy credibility. In this context, the authorities’ revised Budget for 2018/19, approved by Parliament on June 11, is a decisive step in the right direction. The Budget targets a primary surplus of six per cent of GDP.
“Consistent with the message delivered by the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance during the Budget a second phase of measures will be needed to achieve this target. This next phase will focus on reducing expenditures—notably by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public services, reducing government transfers to state-owned enterprises by reviewing user fees, exploring options for mergers, and providing stronger oversight.
“Progress being made by the authorities in furthering good-faith discussions with domestic and external creditors is welcome. Continuing open dialogue and sharing information, will remain important in concluding an orderly debt restructuring process.
“Significant progress has been made during this IMF staff visit on the plan that could underpin financial support from the IMF. On its return to Washington the team will continue to analyze the Government’s comprehensive reform program. We will remain closely engaged with the authorities in the coming weeks.
“The team would like to thank the authorities for open and candid discussions, and looks forward to building on this engagement in the period ahead.” (End of text)
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@ Tony Webster: well if your economic condition makes options 1,2 or 3 the viable ones but you go ahead and choose 4 then you may have a brand new house but you may not have it for too long as you will inevitably fail to make the mortgage payments and the bank will foreclose on you. At that point the run down house will look like a palace when confronted with homelessness.
To assembled DEM sages: when you have a rotted, termite-eaten house, with the main components eaten thru and thru, and the house barely standing...what do you do?
1. Slap some paint 'pon it?
2. "Fix" the flooring, by replacing the three boards where your foot goes clean through, and lef-out those that does bend when you walk over them...for "a lil'while longer".
3. Tek off the rusted galvanise, and "replace" wid some less-rusted ones from de back-yard paling, and put some concrete blocks on dem...just in case of bad weather coming?.
OR...
4: Secure a mortgage from de bank or credit Union; engage a QUALIFIED draughtsman and a REPUTABLE and EXPERIENCED contractor, and build yourself a NEW, strong, purpose-designed home, of which you shall be justly proud...and which you will leave to your children?
Yes...Anansi tell me dis one!
@Carl Harper: it would seem to me that the DEMS who stayed away from the polls made a decision to put Counrty over Party. Undoubtedly, the Stuart Administration made many mistakes and its own supporters made them pay for those mistakes. Objectively speaking, the Mottley Administration has made several mistakes in its infancy and will inevitably make many more. Will it’s supporters make them pay the price when the time comes or will it be BLP always over Barbados?
HONESTLY speaking,I wonder if HONESTLY really UNDERSTANDS what he is TRYING to say when EVERY MAN JACK except him of course honestly knows where this SUFFERATION that he is mumbling to himself about had its ROOTS.
Little does he knows that Barbadians are AT LAST believing that SOMEONE ACTUALLY CARES and IS DOING SOMETHING about the PERILOUS STATE of our AFFAIRS instead of hearing lies on top of lies in phases by the DLP and listening to a Prime Minister saying that HE WAS NOT ASHAMED about what was happening to Barbados and that he had EVERY CONFIDENCE in his MINISTER that was RESPONSIBLE for the 23 DOWNGRADES and the UNBELIEVABLE DROP in FOREIGN RESERVES from near 2 BILLION to 220 million
@ Capital one...people like you need to drink some of the same KOOLAID laced with morality...looks as though all ya heads still HOT from that VOLCANO that hit the DEMOCRATIC LABOR PARTY about 2 months ago.
Instead of people like you losing sleep over Harry Turnover,all like now wunna should be in all ya final stages of preparation for all ya LOSERS get together conference at Party Headquarters and to prepare for that pending IMPLOSION and stop being in election mode.
You in had nutten else to do than to search for a Harry Turners' comment , then to cut and paste it?...was it that IMPORTANT ?
Man,you should invest in the SAME thing that I recommended for PATTY a while back to relieve boredom.
The MASSES have ALREADY SPOKEN....ever so eager to get back voices in Parliament,wait for THE call...wunna in gine get back using the SAME modus operandi and with the SAME OUTDATED and REJECTED candidates and SUPPORTERS here.
What I don't understand about bajans is this- private sectors make job cuts even when they have recorded profits for that year. Nobody says a word. If the government is in a deficit with what shall you pay them with? Government is a business also in case some of you forgot. This is not a Mia or blp problem, this is a matter of survival in an unproductive economy.
Bajans get ready for a big time cut a**
###watch muh now
@C A H. That “significant number of DEMS” of which you speak stayed away from the polls because they could not bring themselves to vote for their own useless candidates or Party, and they sure as hell were not giving their vote to the BLP.
So not even the Dems supporters and yardfowls wanted the DLP to return to Office or believe they could based on the government’s poor performance.
The fact is, the BLP’s base and the swing voters were highly motivated to kick the DLP into the darkness annals of history.
Guess you can say the “hurt” will come from knowing that the Dems now have to convene Parliament in a cozy corner at George Street, Freundel Stuart muzzling anyone who dares to speak, and a stalwart telling him “go to hell!”
Note the words cuts .I have not seen job cuts so I suspect this means tightening up on tardiness and wastage .example instead of sending an empty bus to Eden lodge or with 5 people wanstead eden lodge grazettes holder hill can do all these routes out of peak time
@ Carl Harper: You do know that a significant number of “DEMS” was responsible for that 30-0 result? As such, why should they “hurt” for the next five years?