A team from the International Monetary Fund has praised the Barbados government’s economic recovery and transformation plan after concluding a review visit to Barbados. The IMF describes Barbados’ efforts so far as “excellent”.  The key points of the IMF statement are listed below.

• Barbados has made an excellent start in implementing its ambitious and comprehensive economic reform program.
• The rapid completion of the domestic part of the public debt restructuring has been very helpful in reducing uncertainty.
• The government has engaged in intensive discussions with the social partnership to build public support for its 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 December 4-7, to discuss implementation of Barbados’ Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) plan, supported by the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). At the end of the visit, Mr. van Selm made the following statement: “Barbados has made an excellent start in implementing its ambitious and comprehensive economic reform program. The country’s 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, amounting to more than US$500 million in early December. This has helped to rebuild confidence in the country’s macroeconomic framework.