Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan Monitoring Committee (BERT MC) Public Report #11

Since its last report, the BERT MC has continued to receive reports from the Government of Barbados (GOB) on its progress for each of the months of April through July 2021 towards the targets agreed in the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (“MEFP”) agreed with the IMF within the Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility for Barbados (“EFF”).

This report for the period ended 30th June 2021 coincides with the eleventh set of targets and under the EFF on which the BERT MC now comments.

During the period the IMF executive board completed its fifth review under the EFF agreeing that all performance criteria had been met except for Central Government transfers and grants to public institutions which was missed owing to government measures to address the COVID-19 health crisis. In addition, the executive board agreed that other than the structural benchmark related to on-time filing rates for taxpayers in the Large Taxpayer Unit which fell short of the targeted 90 percent across all core taxes, the remaining 4 structural benchmarks had been completed. Despite the shortfall on these targets the, given the extenuating circumstances, the executive board approved a further US$24 million disbursement.

Concurrent with its review the IMF executive board agreed with the GOB’s requests for the modification of performance criteria allowing for a reduced primary surplus target of 0 percent of GDP for fiscal year 2021/22 to support spending on public health and social protection in continued response to the pandemic. Consistent with that amendment upward adjustments were also made to the performance criteria on central government transfers and grants to public institutions as well as the debt ceiling to accommodate the additional financing needs arising from the lower primary balance target. The Net International Reserves target was revised upwards reflecting higher than expected accumulation of international reserves so far, with Net Domestic Asset of the Central Bank of Barbados reduced accordingly. In addition, ten new structural benchmarks were introduced, and the due date for one was reset.

The BERT Monitoring Committee, an independent sub-committee of the Social Partnership with additional representation from the Domestic Barbados Creditors Group (“BCG”) is primarily responsible for monitoring the progress that the GOB is making in respect of its commitments and targets agreed in the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (“MEFP”) agreed with the IMF within the Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility for Barbados (“EFF”).

To view this report, please download it here.

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Date Posted	December 22 2021
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Download Count	431