The government is expecting to reach floating completion point for an additional US$346M debt relief in net present value terms under the enhanced Highly Indebted Poor countries, or HIPC, initiative by December 15, subject to certain preconditions.
It is very likely that this deadline will be met and is reported to be awaiting certain waivers from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank on two conditions associated with civil service reform.
The completion point for this debt relief has been drifting in the last few years. It was originally expected by the end of 2001 but policy slippages and the expiry of the existing accord at the time with the IMF delayed the date substantially. Guyana has also been deemed off-track in its programme during this period. A new IMF agreement was secured in September 2002, and this was declared off-track in January 2003 but progress on a number of fronts enabled completion of the first review of the programme by the IMF.
A number of other targets for the relief have been met including passage of an amended procurement act and the passage of the tax reform bill.
Meanwhile, the IMF is reported to have revised its negative growth target for Guyana for this year from -0.2% to under one percent of positive growth. This is because the effect the weather had on sugar production has been compensated for otherwise and bauxite production has improved. Gold output is down and diamond output uncertain.