BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – Barbados has sought to assure the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that despite battling the economic fall-out from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the island had achieved several macro-economic benchmarks.

Minister in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs Ryan Straughn, along with other government officials, met with the IMF team conducting the Seventh Extended Fund Facility Review as part of the US$290 million extended arrangement the Washington-based financial institution had approved for Barbados In 2018.

Straughn, acknowledging that adjustments had to be made to the EFF due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said that the Mia Mottley government was still “very committed to seeing the reform efforts through.

“We have responded to a number of social pressures, which have eased somewhat, but we still need to continue some aspects of social spending until all of the population can see an ease in their living circumstances,” he pointed out.

Based on the agreed targets on both sides, Straughn said he is confident that as the pandemic and the crisis in Ukraine rage on, the execution of the government’s capital works programme and private sector investments coming on stream will provide a much-needed boost to the economy.