Word on Guyana's qualification came yesterday from the Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mr. Murilo Portugal, when he emerged from an IMF Executive Board meeting in Washington, DC. at which Guyana's case was evaluated and approved.

Guyana had reached the completion point of the enhanced HIPC Initiative in 2002, after the Boards of the World Bank and the IMF accepted its PRSP.

Since then the country has been implementing widespread reforms to improve social and economic conditions in an effort to accelerate growth and reduce poverty.

As President Bharrat Jagdeo indicated at his news conference last Friday afternoon, IMF/World Bank qualification means that Guyana stands to benefit from a 20-year HIPC debt relief package in which the country will be allowed to keep US$30 million a year - money that would have had to be spent in external debt payments - at home to finance socioeconomic development projects.

Below is the full text of a statement issued on Guyana's qualification by IMF Executive Director Mr. Murilo Portugal:

"Guyana has established a satisfactory track record of social reforms and macroeconomic and structural policy implementation to qualify for debt relief under HIPC, and the requirements for reaching the completion point under the enhanced HIPC Initiative have

"The debt sustainability analysis - based on end-2002 date - indicates that the ratio of the present value of Guyana's external debt to revenue will fall below the 250 percent threshold and decline over the medium term after HIPC debt relief is granted.

"Macroeconomic stability has been maintained since the first review under the PRGF in September 2003, and progress is being made in implementing the envisaged end-2003 structural reforms under the PRGF arrangement.

"Sustained structural and macroeconomic reforms remain key to achieving the growth and revenue objectives needed to ensure Guyana's external and fiscal viability over the medium term. Further progress will be needed in particular in reforming the civil service.

"The additional measures taken in this area recently are therefore a step in the right direction.

"In that light, the Board has approved the authorities' request for waivers of two of the floating completion point conditions on civil service reform.