IMF not the way

Barbados should avoid turning to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a standby loan to ease its financial pressures.

That advice has come from new Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne, who is also the current chairman of CARICOM.

Browne, a former minister of planning, suggested in New York that Barbados should learn from Antigua’s mistake in going to the IMF, only to end up with a hefty loan of hundreds of millions of dollars that must now be repaid, but had nothing to show for problems the country now faced.

“If I were to advise the Government of Barbados I would advise not to engage the IMF, certainly not under the present terms” which the Fund offers small countries, said Browne.