May 2013 Financial News

IMF: Antigua made progress in restoring debt sustainability

May 10, 2013

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Antigua and Barbuda has made "excellent progress" towards achieving its goal of restoring debt sustainability and macroeconomic stability.

An IMF mission headed by Geoffrey Bannister has recently completed a review of the 2010 multimillion-dollar standby arrangement to the island.

"On the fiscal side, the fiscal outturn for March 2013 was well above programme targets, surpassing the performance criterion on the overall fiscal balance and the indicative target for the primary balance by a wide margin," Bannister said.

"This was partly as a result of strong revenue performance in the first quarter, in line with programme targets due to a large one-off reduction of tax arrears, and partly due to continued expenditure restraint," he added.

He said the first-quarter results put the economy "on a good footing" to achieve the annual fiscal targets for 2013: a central government primary surplus of three per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and an overall surplus of 0.3 per cent of GDP.

"Notable progress has also been made on structural reforms, with five important benchmarks completed in March-April," he said, noting that a new Customs Control and Management Act, consistent with international best practice, was presented to Parliament on April 5, and the Harmonised System 2007 customs code for classifying imports was implemented on April 2.

The mission chief said technical assistance in March also facilitated the completion of a tax-expenditure study and the establishment of an institutional oversight and reporting framework for state-owned enterprises within the Ministry of Finance.

In addition, he said the Baldwin Spencer administration adopted a system to improve commitment control for capital expenditure projects.

- CMC


Source:
Jamaica Gleaner
Friday May 10, 2013

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130510/business/business91.html