Seychelles pursues in depth consultations with IMF and World Bank at Spring Meetings
April 18, 2016
The Seychelles delegation has pursued high level discussions with the IMF and World Bank on Seychelles ongoing programme of reform during the annual Spring Meetings of the Bretton Woods Institutions in Washington.
Minister Adam and Governor Abel had high level meetings with Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, Mr. Min Zhou as well as with Vice a president of the World Bank Group, Mr. Makhtar Diop as well as with other senior members of the two organisations.
The recent World Economic Outlook published by the IMF, has warned of slowing growth in the global economy as well as inherent risks to both emerging and developed economies. Against this back drop, Seychelles has continued to perform very well economically with the IMF recently reviewing upwards its growth assessment of the country for 2016 to over 4%.
During the meetings, the Seychelles delegation underlined efforts being made to maintain economic growth and fiscal and monetary stability while also ensuring strong social protection measures. Minister Adam outlined that the social protection measures announced by President James Michel in his state of the nation address were aimed at reducing the vulnerability of the Seychellois population. The uncertainty around the developments in the global economy underline the need to strengthen the fabric of social protection, building on recent strong economic performances, the Minister emphasised.
He stressed that the government would continue to pursue a strong fiscal surplus. In the recent appropriation to cater for the new measures to the National Assembly, the Government committed to a primary surplus of 3.3% in 2016.
The Central Bank also briefed the IMF and World Bank on the strong commitment to monetary stability, with a tighter monetary stance having recently been adopted.
The Spring Meetings were also held against the back drop of the revelations concerning the 'Panama Papers' and the Seychelles delegation emphasised that all appropriate measures were in place to address the findings of investigations that are ongoing with regards to companies that may have been registered in Seychelles by Mossack Fonseca.
Seychelles is already signed up to the main instruments dealing with exchange of information to boost tax transparency through the Multilateral Agreement on Exchange of Information as well as having a robust national framework to deal with money laundering.
Minister Adam also signed the finalised agreement for the Accelerated Programme of Economic Integration (APEI) that supports African countries efforts to reinforce their development through regional trade facilitation and optimisation. Seychelles, Mauritius and Mozambique were the three countries to sign the agreement in the Spring Meetings.
Under the terms of the agreement Seychelles will benefit from USD five (5) million of concessional finance to assist with its regional trade objectives.