VICTORIA, Seychelles — Seychelles and the International Monetary Fund have reached staff-level agreement on the fourth review under the Extended Fund Facility and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility arrangements. Speaking to national media at the State House yesterday morning, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief mission for Seychelles, Todd Schneider revealed that approval of the reviews by the IMF’s executive board would release funding of around US$13 million in June.
“The targets have been met, and the reform measures that we have been working on are either very well advanced, or already completed,” Mr Schneider noted. He said that despite lower growth than expected last year, Seychelles continues to do “reasonably well”. This reflected some dampening of tourist arrivals. “For this year, I think the issue is how global developments are going to impact Seychelles directly, and indirectly. I think in terms of the direct impact, since we are looking at downward revisions to global growth, and certainly with some of your key tourism markets, there will be some dampening effects on tourism. It is difficult to say exactly how much, because developments keep changing,” he added.
For the year ahead, the IMF is projecting real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of around three percent, taking into account conservative assumptions about tourist arrivals, and spending. “Seychelles continues to grow — public finances are in order, inflation is low, although I know the cost of living is high, but inflation remains relatively low. So in terms of economic outcomes, it is good,” Mr Schneider stated. The IMF is currently finalising its annual debt-sustainability assessment. Last year, Seychelles was assessed as having a moderate degree of debt-risk. The IMF delegation met with President Wavel Ramkalawan and Vice President Ahmed Afif who is currently responsible for the finance portfolio, at the State House yesterday morning. They were accompanied by Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) Governor Caroline Abel.
