Senior Finance Minister attends Caribbean Ministerial Meeting

-as IMF World Bank Annual Meetings in Morocco commence 

During the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Annual 2023 Meetings which were kick-started yesterday in Marrakech, Morocco and are to continue until October 15, 2023, Senior Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh today, along with fellow Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors of the Caribbean Region met and held discussions with IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at a Caribbean Ministerial Meeting. The discussions centred on the macro-critical issues relevant to the Region pertinent to the theme of this year’s meeting “Fiscal and Growth Challenges in the Caribbean”. The sub themes to help guide this year’s discussions are (1)securing a sustainable fiscal position and rebuilding buffers and (2)Boosting sustainable and inclusive growth.  Dr. Singh was accompanied at the meeting by Safraaz Shadood, Ambassador of Guyana to Qatar and Governor of the Bank of Guyana, Dr. Gobind Ganga.

Only recently, during an interview locally on the Dr. Randy Persaud show, Dr. Singh had posited that the IMF has provided n ‘independent, balanced and objective assessment of the state of Guyana’s economy’ and that the IMF’s recent report on Guyana provided a positive reflection on the developments and management of the country’s economy.

“I would say that we consider it to be a good, solid, balanced and objective assessment of the state of the economy right now and we’re happy to get that balanced and objective assessment coming from an independent source,” the finance minister had indicated. He had also said that the concluding statement of the IMF’s mission to Guyana drew attention to the appropriateness of the government’s fiscal and monetary policy stance.

The IMF in the conclusion of its Article IV consultation with local authorities said that Guyana has experienced record real Gross Domestic Product growth with some 62.3 percent increase in 2022. The Fund pointed out as well that the growth is expected to continue in 2023 with a projected 38 percent increase in real GDP, as Guyana continues to build its image as a top destination for investment and its report noted further that Guyana’s current expansionary fiscal policy stance is an appropriate one and further projected real GDP growth on an average of 20 percent per year during the 2024 to 2028 period.

The Caribbean Ministerial Meeting gives Governors and Alternate Governors to the Fund a forum to have open and constructive dialogue with the Managing Director and Deputy Managing Directors of the Fund on macro-critical issues relevant to the region and offers a venue for sharing experiences, perspectives and priorities and for building solutions for problems afflicting the region. It is also an avenue for Management of the Fund to share developments within the Fund that are of interest to the region. The Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Boards of Governors of the World Bank Group (WBG) bring together Central Bankers, Ministers of Finance and development, private sector executives, representatives from civil society organizations and academics to discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook and economic development. The Annual Meetings events are being held over the period October 9-15, 2023.