WASHINGTON, CMC – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Thursday said it has been working very hard” with Suriname and hopes to send a mission to the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country as soon as possible.
The acting director of the IMF Western Hemisphere Department, Nigel Chalk, told a news conference that during the middle of last year, the IMF got into a position “where we were unable to keep reviews” with Paramaribo.
Chalk, briefing reporters on the economic outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean, said that “some part of that was the change in some personnel in the government, some part of that was policy related.”
Last September, President Chandrikapersad Santokhi said divine intervention played a significant role in the IMF agreeing to his administration’s request to renegotiate its existing loan agreement.
The IMF had previously announced that it had approved a new 36-month arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (RFF) for Suriname — an estimated US$688 million.
The Suriname government has said it would urge the IMF to change the recovery plan as its implementation weighs heavily on the people.
Among other things, the increase in electricity rates by 15 percent had been considered heavy for a large part of society. Suriname’s largest trade union federation, C-47, had demanded that the increase be reversed.
“We have had a very close dialogue with Suriname over the past year or so. We have been working quite hard with them to try and bring the program back on track to continue the investments and macro stability the government is making.”
He said Surinamese officials are in Washington attending the IMF Spring meetings and that discussions are taking place with them.
“We hope we will be able to field a mission soon to try and deepen those discussions and come to a conclusion (so) we can proceed with the program,” he said.
Chalk said regarding the issue of bilateral creditors, “This is a tricky issue for Suriname,” adding that the CARICOM country “has a large share of their official public sector debt to China.
“In the program previously, we had moved forward on a schedule because they were essentially not paying the debt to China, and it would eventually be restructured.
“So I think we are looking for some progress in restructuring the Chinese debt. Suriname has already reached an agreement with its Paris Club creditors, and it is close to getting a deal with India which is the other significant creditor, so I think having more.
Progress on the debt with China would help,” Chalk told reporters. Suriname owes more than US$550 million to China.
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