{"id":66674,"date":"2016-03-25T01:06:39","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T23:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/imf-staff-completes-combined-2016-article-iv-consultation-and-first-ecf-review-mission-for-sao-tome-and-principe\/"},"modified":"2016-03-25T01:06:39","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T23:06:39","slug":"imf-staff-completes-combined-2016-article-iv-consultation-and-first-ecf-review-mission-for-sao-tome-and-principe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/imf-staff-completes-combined-2016-article-iv-consultation-and-first-ecf-review-mission-for-sao-tome-and-principe\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF Staff Completes Combined 2016 Article IV Consultation and First ECF Review Mission for S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America, March 24, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — <\/span><\/p>\n

A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led by Maxwell Opoku-Afari, Mission Chief for S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe, visited S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 from March 9\u201324, 2016 to conduct the 2016 Article IV Consultation and the first review of S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe\u2019s economic program supported by the IMF\u2019s three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF).[1]<\/p>\n

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At the end of the mission, Mr. Opoku-Afari issued the following statement:<\/p>\n

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\u201cS\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe\u2019s recent economic performance has been favorable, with GDP growth averaging over 4 percent since 2012, faster than many small-island states, but not sufficiently strong to reduce poverty significantly. Economic growth in 2015, however, slowed as public investment projects were kept on hold due to the late approval of the 2015 budget. GDP growth in 2015 is estimated at 4 percent, lower than the projected 5 percent. Inflation fell further to 4 percent at the end of 2015, aided by weakened demand and falling international prices of oil and other commodities.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u201cOverall performance under the ECF-supported program has been satisfactory. All quantitative performance criteria (PC) for end-December 2015 were met with the exception of the PC on domestic primary deficit which was not observed. The government also made strong progress in implementing structural reforms.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe macroeconomic outlook is favorable in the near term but challenges remain. GDP is projected to grow by 5 percent in 2016 aided by higher and timely execution of public investments, recovery in cocoa production and increased foreign direct investment in the tourism sector. However, elevated lending risks in an environment marked by rising non-performing loans and highly indebted households and businesses will continue to hold back private sector credit growth. Inflation is expected to remain at about 4 percent on the back of falling international prices of food and petroleum products. Staff\u2019s medium-term projection shows real GDP growth falling short of the authorities\u2019 target of 6 percent; inflation gradually aligning with euro area inflation; and the current account deficit contracting further.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe mission advised the authorities to continue to maintain fiscal prudence and the reform momentum, especially in an election year, to bring debt down from high levels and also to bring the benefits of reforms to a broader segment of the population.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGood progress was made in program review discussions. The mission expects to discuss remaining policy issues with the authorities in the coming weeks. The discussions focused on policies to improve domestic revenue mobilization and strengthen public financial management to anchor the debt reduction program, enhance liquidity management, deepen understanding of macro-financial linkages and financial inclusion, and remove impediments to private sector development to support growth, while pursuing a careful debt management strategy. The IMF Executive Board is expected to consider the first ECF review and the 2016 Article IV Consultation in June 2016.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u201cThe mission met with the Minister of Finance and Public Administration Americo d\u2019Oliveira Ramos, the Governor of the Central Bank of S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe Maria do Camo Travoada Silveira, Acting President of the autonomous Island of Pr\u00edncipe Francisco Gula, other ministers and senior government officials, and representatives of the private sector, including banks and other financial institutions, labor unions, civil society, and the international donor community. We are grateful to the authorities for the warm hospitality and for the very constructive discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America, March 24, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led by Maxwell Opoku-Afari, Mission Chief for S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe, visited S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 from March 9\u201324, 2016 to conduct the 2016 Article IV Consultation and the first review of S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,4585,830],"class_list":{"0":"post-66674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-apo","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}