Western Hemisphere > Suriname

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International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
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International Monetary Fund. Legal Dept.
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International Monetary Fund. Finance Dept.
A number of sovereign debt restructurings over the past three years faced significant delays but the cases are now moving forward. These delays slowed access of countries to much needed Fund financial support, and alongside creditors’ efforts the Fund had to find ways forward. With significant experience now gleaned from recent restructuring cases, it is important to extract the lessons for Fund policies from this episode. Delays in future Fund engagements need to be minimized where this can be done in a manner consistent with restoring the member to medium-term external viability and ensuring adequate safeguards for the Fund. Such delays can contribute to a deepening of debt distress, making adjustment more difficult, exacerbating the debt problem, and creating inefficiency costs for both the debtor and its creditors.
International Monetary Fund. Statistics Dept.
This technical assistance report on Suriname highlights proceedings of the Government Finance Statistics (GFS) mission. The authorities have partially followed the recommendations from previous mission that took place in April 2022. While there has been significant progress in below-the-line data, little progress has been made in above-the-line data. Compilers from the Statistics Department of the Central Bank of Suriname have compiled a financial balance sheet of the Central Government (CG) to assure the integration of flows with the stocks of financial assets and liabilities. In addition, they perform regular consistency checks of data on the CG deposits and loans with the recordings in the banking system. No developments have been achieved regarding the institutional sector coverage and little progress has been done regarding the above-the-line data compilation. One of the main issues that hamper GFS data quality is that no comprehensive data on the government revenues and expenditure exist in Suriname. The mission provided an extended hands-on training for the main GFS team compiling above-the-line transactions.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This technical assistance report on Suriname highlights medium-term macro-fiscal forecasting (MTFF). The Economic Affairs Department (EAD) recognizes the desirability of creating a new medium-term macro-fiscal forecasting framework. Existing technical capacity relating to forecasting among most EAD staff is at a basic level. Training, through hands-on exercises using Surinamese data, will play an important role in supporting the development and ultimate adoption of the MTFF. There are several risks to the project’s success, including regarding data quality and availability, as well as competing demands on EAD staff time. Limited data and weak relationships between predictors (economic activity) and fiscal variables would limit the forecast accuracy of the MTFF, though it would still allow for more rigorous and transparent projections than is current practice. Regarding staff time, it is understood that EAD staff have a strong interest in the development and usage of an MTFF, hopefully ensuring sufficient time by a core group of persons is devoted to receiving technical assistance support to develop the tool.
International Monetary Fund. Statistics Dept.
This technical assistance (TA) mission on Government Finance Statistics was conducted during April 19– May 6, 2022. The main purpose of the mission was to review the progress made by the authorities in implementing previous TA recommendations and provide further support to improve fiscal data compilation and dissemination in line with international standards set out in the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014.
International Monetary Fund. Statistics Dept.
At the request of the Suriname authorities, a remote technical assistance (TA) mission took place during December 6–17, 2021. The mission was conducted in coordination with the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department. The main objective of the mission was to assist the Ministry of Finance and Planning (MFP) and the Central Bank of Suriname (CBS) to improve the quality of the Government Finance Statistics (GFS) in view of the IMF program. The main tasks were to (i) conduct a diagnostic assessment of the current GFS and public debt compilation process,(ii) explain and reduce statistical discrepancies, (iii) analyze data on arrears and reassess their treatment in GFS, (iv) review the integration of stocks and flows of the gross debt; and (v) update the public sector institutional table, and (vi) deliver a workshop on GFSM 2014 framework and (PSDS).
International Monetary Fund. Statistics Dept.
A technical assistance (TA) mission on external sector statistics (ESS) was conducted in Paramaribo, Suriname, during March 2‒13, 2020. The mission was part of the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) work program on ESS and was carried out in response to a request from the Central Bank of Suriname (CBvS). The mission reviewed estimates and coverage of the balance of payments and international investment position (IIP), which have been prepared in the sixth edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6) format. In particular, the mission’s work mainly aimed at enhancing the coverage and the classification of (i) currency and deposits assets held abroad by the nonfinancial sector; (ii) insurance services, transport, travel account and trade credit and advances; (iii) offshore petroleum exploration companies; (iv) government external debt; and (iv) the use of business survey. Improvements in these key areas will facilitate a more robust assessment of external sector developments. Reliable ESS is essential for informed economic policy-making by the authorities and for IMF’s surveillance.
Charles Vellutini
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Juan Carlos Benitez
This paper presents a novel technique to measure and compare the redistributive capacity of observed tax (or transfer) policies. The technique is based on income distribution simulations and controls for differences in pre-tax income distributions. It assumes that the only information on the pre-tax distribution available in each country-year is the Gini coefficient and the mean (GDP per capita). We illustrate the technique with an application to the personal income tax, using a dataset of 108 countries over the 2007-2018 period.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This 2019 Article IV Consultation with Suriname discusses that Suriname continues to grow steadily with low inflation. However, there has been little progress in implementing urgently needed fiscal reforms, and the fiscal position is likely to continue to weaken in the coming year. The consultation focused on policies to bolster the economy in the medium term. These include fiscal measures to enhance revenues and efficiency and lower expenditures, policies to improve the monetary and financial sector supervision frameworks, and structural policies to boost potential growth. Advances have been made in developing the central bank’s monetary tools and facilities; however, more is needed to strengthen the credibility of the monetary framework. The banking sector faces important downside risks and there are gaps in the central bank’s supervisory and resolution framework. It is advised to put the public debt on a sustainable path. A significant reduction in the fiscal deficit could be achieved by implementing a value-added tax, curtailing electricity subsidies except to the poor, and improving public financial management.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This Selected Issues paper on Suriname analyzes exchange rate pass through in Suriname. While the previous studies exclusively focused on the bilateral exchange rate against the US dollar, this study, in addition, estimates exchange rate passthrough using the nominal effective exchange rate. This is crucial given the strong presence of euros in the economy due to its historic connections with the Netherlands and French Guyana being one of its neighbors. The study is the first to investigate how various subcomponents of consumer price index respond to exchange rate variations differently for Suriname. The results suggest a cumulative exchange rate passthrough of around 0.4 (0.6) over six months and 0.6 (0.7) over one year for the entire sample of 1980-2019 (2000-19). A more systemic analysis suggests that the exchange rate passthrough has been declining and becoming more short-lived in recent years.
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
Suriname is recovering from the deep recession of 2015-16. Growth has turned positive, inflation has reduced to single digits, real interest rates have turned positive, and the external position has on balance strengthened. Nonetheless, the economy remains heavily dependent on the mineral sector, and faces fiscal, monetary, and banking sector vulnerabilities.