SVG Green Party is calling on the IMF to make public the methodology they use to derive the so called growth rate in SVG. Each year the IMF comes to SVG and wilfully misleads the public in the publication of growth rate without telling the people the methodology used. How can the growth rate be a plus to the SVG economy when it is driven by imports? Every year for the past 7 years the import – export ratio deficit gets wider, with SVG exports falling to 1 dollar for every 7 dollars we import. The IMF is always concerned about the high deficit, but never explains the dangerous implications of this deficit.

The ULP government has been pushing up public debt by almost 100 million dollars per year. Most of this money is spent on unproductive capital expenditure to stimulate a so called growth rate. But the bottom line is that when public debt increases and the visible trade deficit increases, to talk about growth as a positive component to the economy, is like saying the economy is well if we ignore the billion dollar public debt and the 700 million dollar trade deficit. To put it simply, the IMF is talking a load of economic nonsense.

How can there be positive growth in SVG when some businesses are seeing sales drop by over 50% and other businesses are closing down. There is no trickling down of the money to the average man. In fact unemployment and poverty is increasing, so is crime and government borrowing is rocketing. The IMF is not truthful in its reporting of the performance of the SVG economy. When the IMF comes to SVG they get a very narrow cross sectional perspective of the SVG economy based on what the ULP government feeds them. The IMF and the ULP government are afraid to publish the methodology used to calculate the growth rate.

To mislead the public and businesses is a dangerous approach, because people invest money in to businesses thinking that the economy is going well when it is not. The consequence of this is that people lose their life savings or accumulate debt that they cannot repay. The overall effect is that the economy would run in to a higher trade deficit and a higher public debt to GDP ratio. When this debt bubble bursts anything could happen in SVG.

The IMF is trying to mislead the people of SVG and it is wrong, and in this day and age the IMF should stop doing it. It is no wonder many Latin American countries ban the IMF from entering their country. For over 30 years the IMF has been visiting poor countries and these countries are poorer now. The IMF is a perpetuator of poverty. Its sole objective is to keep poor countries poor to suit its own selfish agenda. The IMF has been coming to SVG since our independence and SVG has been getting poorer every year. The IMF’s absence from SVG would be a blessing.

 (A copy of this article has been sent to the IMF)