(Barbados Nation): A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be back on the island for more talks next month.
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley made the announcement yesterday afternoon during a media briefing to update the country on her recent visit to Washington to meet with the IMF.
Mottley said the team would arrive in Barbados on July 2 and talks would continue until July 12. A team led by Dr Bert van Selm spent three days here earlier this month.
She said everything remained on track and her Government could not afford to take the advice of those who said to slow down.
The Prime Minister said they were moving quickly because uncertainty was not in the interest of the country.
“Relax, we got this,” she said on more than one occasion during the live stream from Government Headquarters on Bay Street.
Mottley noted that once the country signs an agreement with the IMF, the country will able to access financing from the Inter-American Development Bank, Caribbean Development Bank and others.
She also addressed the country’s debt restructuring plan.
“We have this matter under control. I know that there are some who are a little nervous about the manner in which the comments are coming from persons with respect to debt. The bottom line is there is no easy way to say that you are suspending debt payments. There is no easy way to make an omelette without breaking eggs and we have to go through the process,” she said.
Mottley left the island on Wednesday afternoon to engage IMF managing director Christine Lagarde on the state of the Barbados economy. She thanked Lagarde for the speed with which she responded to all correspondence from Barbados.
The Prime Minister was accompanied by Chief Economic Counsellor to the Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment, Ambassador Dr Clyde Mascoll; Director of Finance and Economic Affairs, Ian Carrington and Governor of the Central Bank, Cleviston Haynes.
