Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley greeting Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde in Washington earlier this week. (GP)

Another team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be in Barbados next month to begin negotiations with Government.

This disclosure came today from Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, who said talks earlier this week in Washington with the Managing Director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, and her team went well.

Ms. Mottley told a press briefing at Government Headquarters: “The initial team was just a fact-finding team. This team that comes now, from July 2 to 12, will actually be a negotiating team with the Barbados Government, to be able to settle on what would be the terms and conditions of the contract that underpins how much money they will supply to us, and what conditions there will, if any, be to that money….

“We had an excellent meeting [earlier this week]. We were able to articulate clearer why we need to be able to have a baseline that takes into account fixing our broken infrastructure and protecting the most vulnerable in our society. [We also spoke about] why we will continue to do the things that we have to do in order to be able to make the structural adjustment, that is critical; to make Barbados’ Government more fiscally responsible and to be able to see growth come back to our economy in a way that it has not over the course of the last decade.”

Ms. Mottley said she was happy the engagement with Mrs. Lagarde recognised the country’s situation was urgent and that the IMF was prepared to support Barbados’ Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan.

The Prime Minister stressed that Government was preparing a strong negotiating team for the discussions with the IMF. She explained that the support from the IMF would really be a loan to be accessed at “very, very negligible” interest rates, namely one per cent. She added that it would allow the country to boost its international reserves.

“But the importance of going to the International Monetary Fund is that it unlocks other international concessional funding. So, for example, the Inter-American Development Bank will now be in a position to start lending us serious amounts of capital once we have an agreement with the IMF.

“Indeed, upon signing with the IMF, there is an immediate unlocking of significant amounts of capital and then we go into other discussions with them on policy based loans and investment sector loans; and similarly, with the Caribbean Development Bank and others,” the Prime Minister stated.

Ms. Mottley gave the assurance that Government was engaging with the IMF to bring back growth to this country, to preserve the Barbadian quality of life and the value of the dollar and not “to go on a spending spree”.

She indicated that the IMF had shown a willingness to cooperate with Barbados and responded with alacrity when she and her team engaged with the IMF officials.

“Anyone who knows anything about these processes [talks with the IMF] will tell you that they are amazed at how…fast we are moving forward…. We recognise that uncertainty cannot serve the interest of anyone in this country…. It is in our interest to be able to get to the point where we can put the framework for what is our programme behind us, such that all Barbadians can play their part,” she said. The Prime Minister noted that even though the meetings in Washington went much better than she and her team could have contemplated, in terms of the timelines, the work now lay ahead of them.

sharon.austingill-moore@barbados.gov.bb

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