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Business and Economics > Public Finance

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Cover High-Level Summary Technical Assistance Reports
Barbados: Public Investment Management Assessment - PIMA and Climate PIMA
Lesley Fisher
,
Taz Chaponda
,
Chloe Cho
,
Willie Du Preez
,
Guohua Huang
, and
Gemma Preston
An IMF team conducted a Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA) and Climate PIMA in Barbados. The country is recognized as a global leader on climate issues and has various initiatives underway to strengthen climate resilience. The climate agenda is not yet adequately integrated in PIM practices, specifically in project appraisal, selection, maintenance and procurement.
Keywords:
Public Investment Management and Climate Change; IMF team; climate agenda; climate resilience; investment program; climate adaptation program; Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA); Public investment spending; Natural disasters; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Barbados: Fourth Reviews Under the Extended Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility and the Arrangement Under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Alternate Executive Director for Barbados
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This paper analyzes Barbados’s Fourth Review under the Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility and the Arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility. Barbados’ economic growth has remained robust in 2024 driven by strong tourism, business services, and construction. Inflation has moderated and the external position has continued to strengthen, while the public debt-to-gross domestic product ratio has continued to decline. The Barbadian economy expanded by 3.9 percent year-on-year between January and September 2024, driven by tourism, business services and construction. In this context, labor market conditions improved, with unemployment in the first half of the year falling to its lowest level since 2008. The authorities are advancing their ambitious climate policy agenda. A new Electricity Supply Bill has been tabled to enhance competition in the electricity market and encourage local participation in renewable energy investment.
Keywords:
staff appraisal; interest saving; savings from the debt conversion; sustainability performance target; climate policy agenda; climate change risk; Climate change; Natural disasters; Climate finance; Credit; Global; Caribbean; Central America
Cover Policy Papers
Debt for Development Swaps: An Approach Framework
International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
and
World Bank
The aim of this note is to help stakeholders optimize their decision-making on when, where, and how to use debt-for-development swaps (“debt swaps”), ensuring they bring the intended benefits to all parties involved. It also proposes new approaches to structure these mechanisms, making them less transaction-heavy and more sustainable while maintaining accountability for fulfilling policy and spending commitments. Debt swaps are agreements between a government and one or more of its creditors to replace existing sovereign debt with one or more liabilities1 that include a spending commitment towards a specific development goal. These goals may include nature conservation, climate action, education, nutrition, support for refugees, among others. The spending commitment is often associated with the country's decision to pursue an important development policy.
Keywords:
spending commitment; expenditure efficiency perspective; transparency policy; expenditure program commitment; expenditure commitment; debt sustainability prospect; debt amortization profile; Debt conversion; Debt service; Debt management; Debt sustainability; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Barbados: Third Reviews Under the Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility, Arrangement Under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, and Request for Modification of Performance Criteria-Press Release; and Staff Report
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This paper presents Barbados’ Third Reviews under the Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility, Arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, and Request for Modification of Performance Criteria. Barbados’ economy has recovered to pre-pandemic levels and the external position has improved. Inflation moderated gradually with the easing of global commodity prices but remained somewhat elevated due to adverse weather conditions that affected some domestic crops, and stronger demand for tourism-related services. Gross domestic product growth is expected to remain strong in 2024, driven by dynamism in tourism and related sectors. Implementation of the home-grown Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation plan and the ambitious climate policy agenda continues to be strong. The authorities have completed both reform measures for this RSF review. In March, the government tabled a Stormwater Management Act, replacing the existing Prevention of Floods Act. Meanwhile, Cabinet approved the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Policy Framework to reduce energy use of all government agencies and develop efficient public lighting.
Keywords:
reform measure; RSF arrangement; climate-policy agenda; climate policy agenda; IMF's Extended Fund Facility; Policy discussion; Credit; Fiscal stance; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Global; Caribbean
Cover IMF Working Papers
Harnessing Satellite Data to Improve Social Assistance Targeting in the Eastern Caribbean
Sophia Chen
,
Ryu Matsuura
,
Flavien Moreau
, and
Joana Pereira
Prioritizing populations most in need of social assistance is an important policy decision. In the Eastern Caribbean, social assistance targeting is constrained by limited data and the need for rapid support in times of large economic and natural disaster shocks. We leverage recent advances in machine learning and satellite imagery processing to propose an implementable strategy in the face of these constraints. We show that local well-being can be predicted with high accuracy in the Eastern Caribbean region using satellite data and that such predictions can be used to improve targeting by reducing aggregation bias, better allocating resources across areas, and proxying for information difficult to verify.
Keywords:
Social assistance targeting; satellite data; machine learning; Eastern Caribbean; Small Island Developing States.; aggregation bias; hard-to-verify information; satellite imagery processing; Income; Natural disasters; Caribbean
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Barbados: 2023 Article IV Consultation and Second Reviews Under the Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility and Arrangement Under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Barbados
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This paper highlights Barbados’ 2023 Article IV Consultation and Second Reviews under the Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility Arrangement and Arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility. Barbados continues to advance the implementation of its comprehensive economic reform program and climate policy agenda. The economy is expected to continue growing and inflation to moderate, with real gross domestic product and tourism returning to pre-pandemic levels in the near term. The current account deficit is expected to narrow as tourism and commodity prices fully normalize. Ample international reserves continue supporting the exchange rate peg, which remains a key anchor for macroeconomic stability. The authorities are working on enhancing their monetary policy toolkit and financial sector oversight. The authorities are advancing their ambitious climate policy agenda to increase resilience to climate change and green the economy. Important reforms are being implemented to achieve these objectives, including by incorporating climate considerations into the budget process, improving the disaster risk management framework, providing incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles, and addressing regulatory gaps to facilitate investments in renewable energy. The climate policy reforms are expected to help create an enabling environment that facilitates the mobilization of climate finance and private sector investment in climate-related projects.
Keywords:
RSF arrangement; growth potential; climate change impact; climate policy agenda; sector policy; Climate change; Climate finance; Climate policy; Caribbean; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Barbados: First Reviews Under the Extended Fund Facility and Under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, Requests for Modification of Performance Criteria and Reform Measures, and Rephasing of Access Under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Barbados
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This paper discusses Barbados’ First Reviews under the Extended Fund Facility and under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, Requests for Modification of Performance Criteria and Reform Measures, and Rephasing of Access under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility. Barbados is implementing an ambitious home-grown economic reform and climate policy agenda, aimed at strengthening fiscal sustainability, advancing structural reforms, unlocking the economy’s growth potential, increasing resilience to climate change, and greening the economy. After successfully weathering a series of shocks in recent years, the Barbadian economy has recovered strongly driven by a rebound in tourism and related activities and continues expanding in 2023. The authorities are making good progress in implementing their updated Economic Recovery and Transformation plan and their ambitious climate policy agenda. The planned new policy reforms to develop guidelines to implement sustainable/green public procurement and introduce climate/green budget tagging will further support the incorporation of climate priorities in the budget process. The climate policy reforms are expected to help create an enabling environment that mobilizes private sector investment in climate-related projects.
Keywords:
climate policy agenda; RSF arrangement; Barbadian authorities; government dependence; policy reform; Climate finance; Climate change; Credit; Fiscal stance; Global; Caribbean
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Barbados: Request for an Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility and Request for an Arrangement Under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility-Press Release; and Staff Report
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
Despite a series of economic shocks, Barbados has made good progress in implementing its Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) plan since the government led by Prime Minister Mia Mottley took office in May 2018. Macroeconomic stability was restored with a combination of comprehensive sovereign debt restructuring, fiscal consolidation, and structural reforms to reduce fiscal dominance and enhance growth. International reserves have increased to US$1.4 billion by end-September 2022 from a historical low of US$220 million in 2018. While fiscal consolidation was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, public debt was put back on a downward path starting in FY2021/22. Building on the successful completion of a 2018-22 Extended Fund Facility (EFF), the authorities have requested a successor EFF program along with a Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) to strengthen fiscal sustainability, support the structural reform agenda, and increase resilience to climate change.
Keywords:
successor EFF program; EFF arrangement; climate change mitigation; sector policy; climate change adaptation measure; Climate change; Natural disasters; Fiscal stance; Credit; Global; Caribbean
Cover Finance & Development
Finance & Development, December 2022: The Scramble for Energy
International Monetary Fund. Communications Department
Finance & Development, December 2022
Keywords:
energy transition; West Indies cricket team; fossil fuel use; energy consumption; West Indies cricket journey; Renewable energy; Fuel prices; Non-renewable resources; Energy prices; Electricity; Europe; Global; Caribbean; Africa; Baltics
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Barbados: Seventh Review Under the Extended Fund Facility Arrangement-Press Release; and Staff Report
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
Despite significant economic shocks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, twin natural disasters, and the war in Ukraine, Barbados has made good progress in implementing its Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) plan to restore fiscal and debt sustainability, rebuild reserves, and increase growth. International reserves increased to US$1.5 billion at end-2021 supported by IFI loans. This, and a successful 2018-19 public debt restructuring, helped rebuild confidence in the country’s macroeconomic framework. Economic growth is projected at 11 percent for 2022 premised on a robust recovery of tourism, which is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024. The outlook nonetheless remains highly uncertain, and risks are elevated, including from higher global commodity prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine that are feeding into inflation. Since Barbados imports the bulk of its food and energy needs, the government has adopted temporary VAT caps on oil products to contain retail price increases (fiscal cost of 0.3 percent of GDP). While fiscal accommodation was needed to respond to the pandemic and natural disasters over the past two years, the authorities are committed to running primary surpluses from FY2022/23 onwards which need to reach 5-6 percent of GDP in three years, consistent with meeting the 60 percent of GDP debt target by FY2035/36.
Keywords:
IMF's transparency policy; Barbados revenue authority; SOE reform; IMF's Extended Fund; tourism competitiveness; economic reform; policy issue; Fiscal stance; COVID-19; Natural disasters; Global; Caribbean