IMF’s Managing Director to visit Barbados

Barbados is set to receive a first-time visit from the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgevia.

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced during a press conference at the Grantley Adams International Airport on Sunday that Georgevia would be arriving tomorrow, Tuesday, June 14, for a four-day visit to the island.

Mottley said it’s the first time an IMF Managing Director would be visiting any country in the Eastern or Southern Caribbean.

Although Barbados’ IMF programme ends in September, the Prime Minister insisted no decisions on a future programme would be made this week.

She stressed: “We’re not making the decision this week.  We’re having conversations starting tomorrow [today] with the social partners….  We’re going to have conversations with the Fund and we will make the decisions in the next few weeks.”

Ms. Mottley further stated: “But rest assured that the same Government that said to the world and the IMF that we want a balanced approach that puts people at the centre of our adjustment still is going to have the same approach whether we go back into a programme or we don’t. By the same token, even if we go into a programme, the time has come for Barbados to tell its story to the international capital markets again.” (BGIS)