IMF: Barbados’ economic recovery to continue this year

Good news for Barbados, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that economic recovery here will continue this year.

This after 10% growth last year following a 14% contraction during the 2020-2021 period.

A statement on the IMF’s website notes that yesterday, an IMF delegation led by Deputy Division Chief Pablo Morra ended a 4 day visit to Barbados.

During the visit, discussions were held focusing on the implementation of Barbados’ updated Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT 2022) programme and reform efforts to build resilience to natural disasters and climate change.

The BERT programme is being supported by the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), approved in December 2022.

According to Mr. Morra, Barbados continues to make good progress in implementing the ambitious and comprehensive economic reform programme.

He says targets for the end of December under the IMF’s EFF were met and that international reserves stood at US$1.4 billion at the end of 2022 – equivalent to about seven months of imports.

In addition, he notes that several steps have been taken to advance the structural reform agenda, including actions to strengthen and modernize procedures for granting and managing duty and tax exemptions and safeguard the sustainability of the National Insurance Fund.

The Deputy Division Chief also revealed discussions for the first review under the EFF and the RSF will take place in May.

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