The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it is acutely aware of the urgent need to assist Caribbean countries to build resilience, particularly in the context of the recent hurricanes that swept through the Lesser Antilles killing scores of people and leaving billions of dollars in damage.

“And we stand ready to do whatever we can help,” said Gerry Rice, director of the IMF Communications Department.

Rice was responding to a statement attributed to St Lucia Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, in which he was quoted as telling the Washington-based financial institution that, “If you care about the Caribbean, you must change the rules of engagement and allow us to help ourselves”.

Chastanet was also quoted as saying that, “The billions of dollars in Caribbean loans should be reclassified by the IMF.”

Rice told regional and international journalists yesterday that while the IMF cannot currently reclassify countries to make them eligible for concessional fund borrowing, “A review of the fund’s low-income facilities is currently underway and that will examine how well these facilities are addressing the needs of vulnerable small states and will propose changes if needed”.

Caribbean countries have been categorized as middle- to high-income and are largely ineligible for concessional development financing and official development assistance due to the use of gross domestic product per capita as a principal criterion.

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