GUYANA: Government wants to get out of IMF deal

GEORGETOWN, Nov 11 (IPS) - Guyana's president, Cheddi Jagan, Friday acknowledged that his government would like to jettison a Structural Adjustment Programme implemented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but it cannot.

"I don't want an IMF/World Bank agreement... I don't want it, but I have no alternative if I am to sit and run the government," Jagan told reporters at the presidential complex Friday.

Jagan says breaking off relations with the Washington-based institution now would put his government in the awkward position of coming up with 40 million dollars for balance of payments commitments.

Guyana, launched a harsh Economy Recovery Programme (ERP) monitored by the World Bank and the IMF in 1989 as a means of taking it out of five years of economic stagnation

Although in the past three years, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown to seven percent, the prices of basic food items have been constantly inching upwards.

Government has also been forced to restrict the wage increases of public sector workers as it tries to contain inflation. Jagan has therefore not been able to live up to his promise to more than double civil servant wages which he had given when he was a member of the opposition in the country.

His government was the target of civil servant discontent last year when he failed to live up to his campaign promises. Jagan blamed IMF restrictions for his inability to pay more to the public workers.

Jagan's desire to see the IMF and his country part ways comes following calls in September from the Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC) and the regional branch of Kairos-Europa to dispense with the Bretton Woods institutions in favour of a new financial order that would benefit the poor in the developing world.

CPDC described as an "umbrella of umbrellas" embraces 20 Caribbean Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and works for policy change in the region. Kairos-Europa is a Christian organisation based in Europe concerned with fighting for the improvement of standards of living for marginalised people in developing countries.

"We need an order far more favourable to development than is the case ... one that will improve the lot of people rather than impoverish them," regional representative of Kairos-Europa, Lloyd Cummins, said then.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service