Barbados will not be drawing down the US$64 million that is now available under the precautionary Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Minister of Finance Ryan Straughn confirmed this and underscored that Government was hoping that it would not have to borrow any of the approximately US$260 million in fiscal insurance money which was approved by the IMF’s executive board last Monday.
Straughn noted that it was normal when IMF programmes officially received approval that the first tranche of the funding became immediately available to borrow.
He said this did not mean countries had to access the funding and that in this instance Barbados would not be doing so.
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