Business View Caribbean | January 2020

5 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN JANUARY 2020 T he International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Mission Chief for Barbados, Bert van Selm says the Barbados government is doing a good job of getting the economy back on track, but there remains a lot of work to be done. He gave that assessment while on the island recently for the IMF’s final mission for 2019. “The economy, in my view, is performing very well. Over the last 18 months, the Government has made an excellent start and done very good work in turning around the economy. Today, the international reserves are at a much more comfortable level, more than US$600 million; that is from just over US$200 million from when this Government took office in May 2018, so that is major progress,” van Selm said. “With regard to public debt, public debt has been put on a clear downward trajectory. It was IMF OFFICIAL SAYS BARBADOS ECONOMY ON RIGHT TRACK BUT STILL WORK TO BE DONE close to 160 per cent of GDP, now it is coming down and the debt restructuring agreement with both domestic and external [creditors] has been extremely helpful in this regard, supported by measures to boost growth and fiscal consolidation, of course. These measures should help to keep Barbados’ debt on a clear downward trajectory, so things look much better than they did 18 months ago.” The IMF Mission Chief stressed that it was important for the debt to remain on that downward trajectory with prudent fiscal management, so Government’s target of 60 per cent by 2033 could be realized. However, he added that it was important now for growth to be taken to a higher level with a number of measures, including improving the business climate and strengthening state-owned enterprises (SOEs). He opined that in the area OPENING L INES