Economist Carol Baker is the new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission in Seychelles replacing Jean le Dem, with whom she called on President James Michel at State House on Tuesday.

She said performance under the our economic reform programme has been very strong and successful so an extension of the programme is not necessarily needed but if there will be one, the IMF “would be looking at a very weak global economy and allowing the economy to become stronger before we move to a different type of engagement”.

“The Seychelles economy has been extremely resilient given how the global economy is, especially if you look at the tourism arrival number for example, although Europe is facing challenges.”
She said despite this there has been some growth, giving the completion of the submarine fibre-optic cable as an example.

“We have a positive outlook but there are risks so what we try to ensure is we can make the economy as strong as possible so that we can keep moving forward so we never have a situation where we do have a downturn.”

She said her team is here to discuss the sixth performance review under the International Monetary Fund’s programme in Seychelles.

“We have been here for a week and wanted to brief the President on our work so far, telling him the progress we have made and discuss some of the positive and negative economic issues that are coming up and things we are looking at for the next year,” she said.

Mrs Baker said the IMF has three types of engagements with member countries namely programme relationships, surveillance – during which the organisation does checks and advises government – and a technical help scheme.

“Through those three ways we help countries move forward with their economic policies. In the case of Seychelles on this mission we are looking at possibilities for future engagement perhaps through an extension,” she said.

She said there are disadvantages to the change of guards because the former mission head has “a large institutional memory of the things that have been happening in Seychelles and he knows the team”.

“However when you bring in a new set of eyes and a new mission chief you bring in a different view and focus along with new ideas so there are some benefits to it.”

She said the fact that the new and former mission heads are here together gives them a chance to meet government officials and ensure a full handover of information so as to move the process forward and make it stronger.

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