In much the same way that, in recent years, reportage on Guyana’s economic outlook has benefited from a more favourable international profile arising out of the country’s world class oil finds, so too are more pleasing evaluations of neighbouring Suriname beginning to emerge.
This week’s (September 18) release of the IMF Executive Board’s Seventh Review under the Extended Fund Facility Arrangement for Suriname painted a decidedly more pleasing picture of the Fund’s prognosis for the country’s economy, going forward.
The Fund’s report on its recent visit to Suriname to undertake its “Seventh Review under the Extended Fund” specifically pinpointed the country’s “commitment to maintaining prudent macroeconomic policies and implementing difficult reforms”, an approach which it says is yielding “positive results.” “The economy is growing, inflation is coming down, international bond spreads are at record lows, and investor confidence is returning,” says the IMF in its most recent assessment of the country’s economy.
Specifically, the Fund, following its most recent visit to Paramaribo, has cited what it says is “the authorities’ commitment to maintaining prudent macroeconomic policies and implementing difficult reforms,” the IMF update says.
As a means on which to build on the progress made thus far under the (IMF) programme, the IMF is recommending that the authorities in Paramaribo “entrench fiscal discipline, particularly in the run up to the elections, while protecting the poor and vulnerable.” It further recommends that the authorities persist with “structural reforms to strengthen institutions and address governance weaknesses.”
Between 2015 and this year Guyana and Suriname have illuminated global attention to South America through their world class oil discoveries that have resulted in significantly heightened global interest in the two countries and in the continent as a whole. Simultaneously, Presidents Irfaan Ali and Chandrikapersad Santokhi have embarked on a high-profile cross-border engagement that has witnessed visits by the two Heads of Government to each other’s capitals and opened the door to enhanced bilateral relations between their two countries.
