IMF agrees $293 million financing for Barbados, first deal below new belief fund By Reuters

By Andrea Shalal and David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Worldwide Financial Fund stated on Wednesday that its workers has agreed on some $293 million in new financing for Barbados, together with $183 million by way of a brand new belief fund created to assist weak middle-income and island international locations.

The staff-level settlement is the primary below the Resilience and Sustainability Belief accredited by the IMF board in April, the IMF stated. The Fund additionally stated it reached settlement with Barbados on a brand new, 36-month Prolonged Fund Facility (EFF) mortgage of about $110 million.

Each agreements want approval from the IMF Government Board, which is predicted to contemplate the workers settlement in November or December, Bert van Selm, IMF mission chief for Barbados, instructed reporters.

Van Selm, who introduced the agreements in Barbados with Prime Minister Mia Mottley, stated the Caribbean nation was ideally suited to be the primary nation to make use of the brand new belief given its profitable execution of an earlier IMF program, its location in a area uncovered to local weather change, and Mottley’s management.

He stated Barbados had not accomplished all of the reforms meant throughout its earlier four-year EFF program as a result of COVID-19 pandemic and had sought a follow-on program to finish these efforts. He stated it wanted to scale back its debt and was planning to begin finishing up monetary stress assessments in coming years that took local weather dangers under consideration, he stated.

The brand new belief expands entry to low-interest loans to about 140 international locations, double the quantity that would faucet such sources below the IMF’s Poverty Discount and Progress Belief. That shall be a giant assist for center earnings international locations, comparable to these within the Caribbean, that had been onerous hit by a lack of tourism in the course of the pandemic and are extremely weak to local weather change.

“It is apparent to everyone that local weather change is the foremost problem of our day, and we have to tackle it, if we will,” van Selm stated.

IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva first mentioned the brand new belief in June 2021, telling Reuters it could assist a broader vary of nations get the help they wanted to deal with local weather change and different sustainability challenges.

Bangladesh and Argentina have additionally expressed curiosity in tapping funds below the belief, which presents 20-year financing. Van Selm stated a number of extra international locations had been in talks with the IMF and he anticipated extra bulletins earlier than the tip of the 12 months.