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CHARLESTOWN, Nevis (NIA) -- A top International Monetary Fund (IMF) official has described discussions with premier of Nevis and minister of finance in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) and his team last Friday as fruitful.

Division Chief of the IMF’s Western Hemispheric Department George Tsibouris made the comment in brief remarks at the end of a one day visit to Nevis by a delegation from the Fund and a representative of the East Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB). The visit was to discuss the government’s programme supported by the Fund.

“I think our conversation was very fruitful. We talked about economic developments for 2012; we also had a good discussion about economic policies in the period ahead, including the upcoming 2013 budget discussions.

“I came away from this meeting with a very strong sense of the commitment the premier has to improving the economic situation of Nevis. I think the vision that he [Premier Amory] is echoing is one that we will strongly support, in the sense that we stand ready to provide support to policies that are aimed to enhance growth in this economy and address issues of employment. So this is a very good first conversation and we hope and look forward to continuing this strong dialogue in the period ahead,” he said.

The IMF official also noted that the team took the opportunity to congratulate Premier Vance Amory on his electoral victory on January 22, 2013, and, although he had been at the helm for only a few days, they thought it prudent to use the opportunity to brief him on the Fund’s programme and on recent economic developments.

Amory said his meeting with the IMF team was forward looking and would help to determine the type of policies his administration needed to implement.

“Yes we had to look at the state in which we find ourselves but it was really mainly to determine what sort of policies we need to implement, to ensure that in the future we see economic growth and we are able to find ways of addressing the fiscal deficits.

“Find ways to, I am sure, they will narrow the gap between the debt to GDP, which I think is important and also to find some measure from our own domestic policy which will enable the people of Nevis to know there are strategies we the government, will put in place to help them to get over this hump and also to benefit the government itself,” he said.

Amory told the IMF team that his administration was aware that the challenges ahead would not suddenly evaporate and he pledged his administration would do things that would enable them to face those challenges in order to meet its commitments to the Fund.

He said he emerged from the meeting with a good feeling and looked forward to the IMF’s report when the time came mindful that his government’s budget would give some comfort that NIA was prepared to do things in a positive way to turn things around in Nevis.

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