On 7th March 2008, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published the IMF 2007 Report on St. Vincent & the Grenadines’ (SVG) economy. The report stated that GDP growth in 2006 was close to 7%, the highest in the last decade.

The Leader of SVG Green Party, Ivan O’Neal, who is an economist, wrote to the IMF on 13th March 2008 and challenged the IMF to show where in SVG’s economy SVG had growth. Ivan O’Neal had stated in his letter to the IMF, that SVG’s economy was experiencing a substantial decline in output. Therefore, it is impossible to have positive growth in the SVG economy.

The IMF wrote to the Leader of the socially conscious SVG Green Party on 12th May 2008, and stated that the GDP growth rate was calculated by the SVG Central Statistics Office and then given to the IMF. Clearly, little or no actual statistical research was done by the IMF and the IMF believed and just relied upon whatever nonsense the SVG government fed it.

The IMF, by their actions, is a highly dishonest, fraudulent, wicked and out of place. If it believes that GDP growth in 2006 was close to 7%, then it should provide a breakdown of this apparent economic growth. Otherwise, the staff who wrote the report should be extradited to SVG and stand trial for writing such a highly dishonest and fraudulent report.

The IMF has also made a false claim in their report that there was expenditure restraint. That is not true as the SVG economy overshot by 64 million dollars in 2006. SVG Green Party would like to know whether the IMF staff received any ‘payment’ for making such a highly false economic report.

The reality in SVG is that many 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. Unemployment, crime and poverty are increasing, and government borrowing is rocketing. In SVG, 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 imported. The cost of living in SVG is spiralling upwards – VAT, fuel prices and food prices are increasing dramatically and may lead to the type of rioting and social unrest that we have seen in Haiti. In the 2007 Budget Address, the Prime Minister of SVG states ‘for the third consecutive year, the agricultural sector experienced negative growth’.

SVG Green Party regard the IMF as a very dishonest organisation and calls on the international community to close the IMF operation for being dishonest and transfer the IMF’s funds to the World Bank for management. The work of the IMF is not helpful to sustainable development, as the IMF is deceitful and misleading in their reports.

We strongly believe it would be a positive approach to dismantle the IMF, as historically the work of the IMF has not had a positive impact on developing countries’ economies. We are calling on the international community to look into the IMF’s false reporting as the IMF staff must be brought to justice.

Ivan O’Neal  BSc(Hons), MSc, MBA
Leader and Co-founder of SVG Green Party