Caribbean & Central America - March 2019

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been visiting Barbados again. A team was in the country from 5-8 February to discuss the implementation of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) plan, and the end-of-visit messages were positive.

Barbados currently has the benefit of an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) from the IMF, and the mission reported that “all indicative targets for end-December under the EFF have been met”. It also said that “good progress had been made” in meeting the structural benchmarks, including the passing in early 2019 of two key pieces of legislation: the Public Financial Management Act, and the Town and Country Planning Act.