Collective CARICOM voice for recovery at IMF-World Bank meetings – MENAFN.COM

Collective CARICOM voice for recovery at IMF-World Bank meetings – MENAFN.COM

The response by policymakers of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to the depth of COVID-19's effects on Caribbean economies needs to be urgently reviewed, particularly regarding debt. An unduly optimistic assessment of the extent of damage to economies and an overly confident expectation of how long the effects will last, have resulted in inadequate instruments to help Caribbean countries get out of the hole into which they have been sunk through no fault of their own. Caribbean countries did not create the pandemic and they have been among the most successful in containing it at great cost to their Treasuries. The staff of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group (WBG) and the directors on the boards, representing CARICOM countries, deserve credit for advancing the region's interests. The inadequacy of the IFIs response is not their fault; it is entirely due to board directors of some larger countries who remain stuck to mistaken policy positions whose failures have enlarged the harmful effects of the pandemic. One of these continuing unhelpful policy positions is the application of per capita income as a criterion to deny high-income Caribbean countries access to concessionary loans, even though these countries are subject to