Prime Minister, Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris, met with the upper ranks of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in Washington D.C., to discuss a range of developmental issues and the support that the IMF can provide to further sustain the consistent economic growth of the Federation.

Executive Director of the IMF, Ms. Louise Levonian, commended the Prime Minister and his Team Unity administration on its strong economic performance and reforms to mitigate fiscal risks, during a meeting on Saturday Oct. 19^th.

Dialogue was also centered around the Federation’s efforts of building resilience when it comes to natural disasters, sustaining its fiscal and debt sustainability goals, overcoming financial/banking system obstacles and the importance of capacity development as a means of managing threats imposed by these risks.

PM Harris during this conversation highlighted the dangers of using the gross domestic product (GDP), as the key indicator in accessing emergency funding assistance after a natural disaster.

He reiterated that some Small Island States like the Federation were unable to benefit from this funding due to their high GDP.  He called on the IMF officials to clinically examine other country benchmarks as a gateway for receiving emergency financial assistance after a natural disaster “while maintaining international good governance standards.”