The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on October 28, 2015 approved a disbursement of an amount of about US$8.7-million for Dominica as the island rebuilds following the ravages of Tropical Storm Erika.
Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair of the IMF, Mitsuhiro Furusawa, said an assessment report by the World Bank and the Government of Dominica estimates total damage and loss at US$483 million, 96 percent of GDP, making Erika the worst natural disaster ever to strike Dominica.
“The recovery and rehabilitation costs will be substantial, putting tremendous pressure on already challenging fiscal and balance of payments positions,” he said. “Fiscal policies will accommodate an increase in reconstruction spending over the medium term, expected to be mostly grant financed, while the underlying policies are being appropriately refocused from a supportive cyclical stance toward a medium-term consolidation objective. The authorities have committed to generating robust primary surpluses over the medium term to ensure downward debt dynamics. They will tackle pressures on current spending, broaden the revenue base, strengthen tax collection, further re-prioritize capital expenditures, and step up efforts to strengthen the fiscal policy framework to ensure the sustainability of the fiscal adjustment effort.”
Furusawa added that local authorities have also made the commitment to “strengthening financial policies to tackle regional and domestic vulnerabilities, both in terms of the health of financial institutions and their supervisory and regulatory frameworks.”
“Structural reforms remain critical to support the fiscal effort as well as to improve competitiveness and private-sector growth prospects. Reforms to build resilience to potential future natural disasters should also be stepped up,” he stated.
The funds for Dominica is to be drawn from the IMF’s Rapid Credit Facility (RCF).
The RCF provides immediate financial assistance with limited conditionality to low-income countries with an urgent balance of payments need. In this context, the economic policies of a member receiving RCF financing are expected to address the underlying balance of payments difficulties and support policy objectives including macroeconomic stability and poverty reduction. Financing under the RCF carries a zero interest rate, has a grace period of 5.5 years, and a final maturity of 10 years. The Fund reviews the level of interest rates for all concessional facilities every two years.
election. 34 million
Is Dr Thomson Fontaine really am economist and a past employee of the I M F. Does he really have a Doctorate in Finance. Maybe D N O could get him to post his take on the I M F action vis a vis Dominica. I know the IMF is an investment bank and are interested in garding their money and making a profit by charging interest. Their action is needed to establish credit worthiness and confidence. They are not a donor agency……more like a regulatory and advisory body.
If I am wrong maybe Doctor Fontaine can throw some light on the issue….en D N O.
As I see it the US$483 mil is to repair damages, reconstruction. It does not cover future development needs, It is not intended to bring us back to par before Erica. If that amount is required for some reconstruction how much do we need for sustainable development …….five billion EC$? We cannot just go back to where we were and just stay there.
This is very bad news!!
You mean to tell me, with the magnitude of this NATURAL disaster, Skerrit, with all his so-called “negotiating skills” could not find grant financing from international donors?
What is his appointee for international aid, Baroness Scotland, doing? Why hasn’t she called a Donor Pledging Conference to raise grant funds for Dominica.
The recovery after Ericka will stagnate and Dominicans will suffer harship ( misere) for a longtime to come.
Is so we come?
Trust you to open your big mouth on our PM. Soon all you willshut all you mouth. Just listen to the independence day message. Further more why you not coming Dominica and do some hard work instead run your mouth. Dam it with those UWP supporters.
The IMF just threw a big hook with a flavored bait; hoping to catch a BIG fish. I hope they do.
we de labourites do not care what skerrit do, we do not care where he go. he doh have to be there with IMF. is jaloo all you jallo our pm. All you jaloo his expensive shirts and suits. we doh care about corruption and being last in everything. since our pm get rich and we get our tablet thats all we worry about.
I love My PM
And that’s the problem with you all. Ignorance and people with little or no brain at all, waiting for handouts at the Red Clinic while they continue to line their pockets. I only hope you have no children else sooner or later you will be held responsible for your inaction.
That is exactly the reason Dominica is in this state!
Dominicans, professional beggers
Do you really know what the pm is doing now? It is time we put a side the partisan politics and face reality. Dominica is the only nation in the world where people question their leaders and it becomes an offence to do so. Where is the transparency and accountability? The same skerritt had problems with Rosie Douglas on his travels although he travelled with the media. What is wrong with us as a nation, it is time for us to rise up and hold our leaders accountable for their actions.
Are you a man or woman? If you are a man it seems to me you are the type who would be a dead beat father. If you are a woman it seems to me that you have no compassion for other women.
Hon Skerrit is taking care of his pregnant wife who developed some complications. As a young family man he has to be by his wife to give all the support at this time. There is life after politics you know.
I pray whatever the complication Mrs Skerrit will be OK and eventually have a safe child birth with both mother and child being health and well. The PM and his family are in my prayers.
And you know that how?
All you are just barking and barking like dogs without teeth. Every-time is, “It’s time for us to do something.” This is an echo, the same echo of the usual barking. You all are too coward to stand up and do anything. So just stop backing already, please.
At a cost of EC$ 7M per bridge that can build the three bridged on the west coast and still have some remaining for part of the layout river sea wall from the Hillsborough bridge to layout.
Or it can cover the government’s VAT shortfall so it can keep paying its staff and keep basic services operating.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Finances are so precarious they are struggling to pay the salaries.
Pm Skeritt is having a well earned break.
Say what????
“The RCF provides immediate financial assistance with limited conditionality to low-income countries with an URGENT BALANCE OF PAYMENT NEED.
So this is what all the duty-free aid was for, to plummet tax revenues and now cry that we are unable to make payments toward our billion dollar debt?!
On a day like this, the financial minister cannot even be found to explain what this will mean to the country. We all know when the IMF comes knocking, the people start sucking salt!
Let’s translate from what the IMF says to what they really mean.
“The authorities have committed to generating robust primary surpluses over the medium term to ensure downward debt dynamics.”
Translation: Even though you’ve just been slammed by a natural disaster, your money will go to our first world bankers rather than to rebuilding your country.
“They will tackle pressures on current spending,”
Translation: Cut spending, which hits everything from education, to healthcare, to roads, to rubbish collection.
“broaden the revenue base, strengthen tax collection,”
Translation: Raise taxes and use aggressive measures to collect them.
“further re-prioritize capital expenditures,”
Translation: Your hospital needs an overhaul? Too bad.
“and step up efforts to strengthen the fiscal policy framework to ensure the sustainability of the fiscal adjustment effort.”
Translation: Dominica is being economically recolonised.
This is one of the few times that i can agree with your statement the IMF is not there to help countries there are there simply to as you stated financially recolonize these countries. Prime Minister Skeritt has taken many measures from what I have read and seen to avoid the IMF as much as possible.
I believe that if the opposition party were not so divisive & negative the funds coming in from the diaspora would have been significantly larger. that shortsighted self serving divisiveness, is politics of the past pulling Dominica back to the past. We should work together to improve the country overall and after elections are finished negative campaigning should be finished as well.
You may be right on what the opposition are doing. I wonder if the donors are listening to our internal politics. It is an excuse though to blame the opposition for our failure to attract foreign assistance. But the reality is the DLP has used a lot of the assistance received to push their political agenda (remember one of dlp’s philosophy is handouts ). Any any democracy opposition has a right to “run their mouths” They may speak garbage sometimes, sometimes they make sense. The opposition were demonized during elections and that has been hammered into the heads of the hard core laborites. You speak like one of those who listens to a lot of Kairi. Both stations have their propaganda both have their truths. Ultimately Bro/Sis the hard facts remain we have a nation to build. Your bread may well be well buttered but if things don’t change quickly our children and children’s children have some serious bills to pay.
So you think we should tell them to shove it and just make do ? Enjoy your cappuccino.
Look, I understand that rebuilding will be very expensive and that austerity may be necessary. I’m all for fiscal responsibility in government, trust me. If concessionary loans are really part of the solution, I would agree with you that they should be one tool in the toolbox of recovery.
But if there’s going to be pressure for sweeping changes to Dominica’s fiscal policy, that pressure should come from Dominicans and not from institutions like the IMF. They’ve demonstrated that repayments are more important to them than the welfare of the people who are taxed to make them. Even now they insist that Somali people today are somehow responsible for loans made to the long overthrown Barre regime that oppressed their parents and grandparents before many of them were even born. Are you really not concerned about the role of an institution like that in what decisions are made?
Apparently Dominica is comparable to Somalia.
Hardly, anonymous. But then you knew that’s not what I was saying.
You seem to believe that Dominica is actually capable of generating the kind of money needed to rebuild and that it’s taking the IMF cash as an easy out / irresponsible decision. You know nothing about Dominica if you believe that is even possible in the most creative of imaginations.
according to the estaimated loss of US 483 Million dollars,96 percent of G.D.P we getting 8.7 million.I believe they shoul negotiate for more considering our circumstances.
Right now our country is like a paro on the bayfront. How can a beggar negotiate with you for a big loan? Chupes man, be real.
What other options has he got,could u inform the public.I dont agree with that statement that our country isd like a paro on the bayfront.I am aware that we are fighting for ecomonic survival in a real competitive world and we are doing good.We are better than quite a lot of countries right now in Latin America and the Caribbean.also the second statement is somewhat out of context cause we are not begging but negotiating for assistance from the IMF with the knowledge and will to payback.There is nothing wrong in that.We are are country and all countries ask the IMF for assistance.Thats why the IMF is there.Its stands for INTERNATINAL MONETARY FUND.
IMF to de rescue wi boy!!!!
you can run but you can’t hide!!
so much talk about de IMF.
China, Venezuela and Morrocco missing in action!
Here comes good ole IMF to de rescue boy.
Thank Goodness for de IMF!!!!!!!
I think there office is in de US.
Thank you for your strongest yet show of support to our Waitikubuli!!!
“The recovery and rehabilitation costs will be substantial, putting tremendous pressure on already challenging fiscal and balance of payments positions,” he said. “Fiscal policies will accommodate an increase in reconstruction spending over the medium term…” Is Skerrit in town to explain this to us?
The authorities have committed to generating robust primary surpluses over the medium term to ensure downward debt dynamics. They will tackle pressures on current spending, broaden the revenue base, strengthen tax collection, further re-prioritize capital expenditures, and step up efforts to strengthen the fiscal policy framework to ensure the sustainability of the fiscal adjustment effort.”
That sounds like speaking in tongues to me and I need the professional Skerrit to explain. But is he here?
This US$8.7-million dollars is like a preacher asking the bridegroom if he will still marry his bride for better or worse. He knows he has to say “I do” in other to get the wife, so he…
Where is Roosevelt Skerrit????
Skeritt is your child?
@sense in my head, You don’t seem to have sense at all. FYI, Skerrit is the manager we HIRED to manage our business and therefore we have EVERY right to know where he is. Stop being foolish!
it dont have no stories on Dno where skerrit name dont come up..awaa we dominicans
@Miss Quinzy, can you talk about the failures of West Indies Cricket team without talking about the captain and selectors? Skerrit is Finance minister and Prime Minister; he is the alpha and omega; the A and Z
Wait…the IMF just approved a facility for Dominica…and we are NOT to ask where is the financial minister??? Only in Dominica.
In normal places the Minister of Finance would be the one delivering this report! We settle for less therefore we are less!
But why not miss Quinzy? That fellow is famous, or notorious depending on your point of view. Or maybe he is even the wisest prime minister ever according to a fawning preacher. He certainly is controversial.
They are truly obsessed! The man on higher heights, higher levels than all you! Free up!
i wanna see you teach dat to your children.
He higher than you to?
Of course he higher than us bomboclat. He is in cloud cuckoo land and hallucinating because the air there is too thin.
They are obsessed with him wishing that they could walk in his shoes. Why not think of ways you can help your country whether you live there or not. Gov’t is doing their part do yours. Smfh.
This is not about mentioning Skeritt name. It was said that he would be out of the Island for 10 days it is now past 10 days. Is he back in Dominica or has he extended his vacation? Just asking.
He is out doing what we put him there to do.
What, telling lies?? Garcon ou sot.
The IMF is there and our finance manager is AWOl, run to the hill looking for a bolthole, a Safe Haven but they are smoking him out.
Skerrit my child? Perish the thought!