IMF approves 4th review and releases US $4.8m |13 January 2012

Central Bank governor Pierre Laporte and principal secretary for Finance Ahmed Afif said this in a press conference yesterday afternoon.

“The IMF board is satisfied after the review its staff carried out in November last year that Seychelles has met all the benchmarks of its economic review programme under the EFF,” they said.

“The board has however expressed concern about the potential impact on the tourism sector because of what is happening in Europe – which is the islands’ main tourism market – and also because Air Seychelles has stopped direct flights to Europe.”

We expect the IMF mission to return in March to do the fifth review under the programme and even then we expect to have met set targets,” they said.

Nation hopes to publish further details from the conference tomorrow.