After a week in Belize, the IMF team left on Wednesday and today Cabinet met in an extraordinary Friday session to review the consultations. So what was discussed? Well an official release from Cabinet Secretary Bobby Leslie was short on details saying only that today's special meeting was to conduct a detailed review of the IMF consultations.
The release says during the visit the team met with GOB's technical team and Cabinet's finance committee to review government's fiscal, monetary, and debt strategy. It adds that they also looked at GOB's short-term plan for fiscal consolidation and debt consolidation. Cabinet today tasked its finance commit to now draft a medium term program.
The joint IMF, Inter-American Development Bank, Caribbean Development Bank, and World Bank mission was led by the IMF's Bernhard Fritz Krackow.
And since they were there anyway, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs used today's meeting to announce its plan to save a million dollars by closing offices in Cancun, Chetumal, Geneva Switzerland, and Ottawa Canada. Staff at those missions will be re-deployed abroad or back home in the public service. Costs will also be skimmed by streamlining operations at other missions.