Questions have been raised about why the IMF Article IV Consultation has yet to produce the 2023 assessment on St. Vincent’s economy, as well as if it has ended.
The Article IV Consultation Report is typically produced in October or November of each year and provides information on the country’s economic metrics.
Political analysts on the island informed the St Vincent Times that, with the increase in various taxes on the populace in the 2024 budget, the IMF may have recommended some type of austerity measure in the 2023 report that the administration may not want the public to know about.
According to the framework for dealing with excessive delays in the completion of Article IV consultations, there are lists of IMF members whose Article IV consultations have been postponed by more than 18 months as of December 15, 2023. Six countries have been added to the list since June 2023 (Burkina Faso, Chad, Haiti, Myanmar, Russia, and Tunisia), while two have been removed (Zambia and Ukraine). St. Vincent is not on the list, which raises further concerns.
The delay is calculated as the time elapsed since the consultation date plus any appropriate grace period.
The last published report for SVG was issued on November 17, 2022, and stated that the GDP was expected to rise by 5% in 2022, owing to large-scale investment projects and recoveries in tourism and agriculture. Growth was expected to accelerate in 2023 as large-scale construction projects ramp up.
According to the statistics, the IMF has already completed Article IV consultations with other countries in the ECCU ; however, St. Vincent is not on the list.
Concluded:
Trinidad: May 5, 2023
Grenada: November 20, 2023
Barbados: November 13, 2023
St Lucia: August 29, 2023
Dominica: July 5, 2023
Antigua: September 29, 2023
St Kitts: March 31, 2023
