BASSETERRE, St Kitts – Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Timothy N.J. Antoine has identified four priority areas for increased collaboration between the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This comes against the backdrop of high global economic uncertainty and weakened growth prospects.
During the Western Hemisphere department director’s meeting with Caribbean ministers of finance and central bank governors at the IMF last week, the ECCB Governor welcomed enhanced partnership in the following areas:
Macroeconomic Modelling related to shocks, with a view to understanding their impact on Tourism and Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) programmes within the eight-member ECCU;
Debt Sustainability Analyses that are fit for purpose by adequately capturing climatic and other shocks on the member countries of the ECCU;
- Developing a Green Finance Market in the Currency Union; and
- Developing Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategies.
“Data is the new oil and, like oil, it has to be refined and processed to maximise its value,” Governor Antoine said. He added: “We think the Fund can help our member countries with respect to our data and AI strategies; that must, of course, include big data, as we try to make sense of the world we are in and as we make good policy decisions to meet those challenges.”
Last week’s gathering was held as part of the 2025 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the IMF in Washington, DC.
The meeting aimed to further strengthen coordination and open dialogue between the IMF and the Caribbean, while discussing resilience-building strategies. The IMF has a strong tradition of partnership with the ECCU countries and the ECCB.
The other members of the ECCB’s delegation to the 2025 Spring Meetings were Dr Emefa Sewordor, director of advisory services in the governor’s office; and Karen Williams, director of projects and technical assistance in the governor’s office.
Meanwhile, the ECCB Governor, while participating in a roundtable on domestic resource mobilisation, highlighted the importance of:
- Local capacity building in high-impact areas, such as physical and digital infrastructure, trade logistics and energy security, particularly in respect of closing policy and regulatory gaps, which act as barriers in attracting private capital to the table for these critical sectors.
- Encouraging multilateral development banks to get more creative in their deployment of credit guarantees, which in large part are currently not going to low-income countries or to small island developing states (SIDS). “We have to push them to get more creative on that because, to me, that’s the only way we are going to be able to bring additional private capital to the table,” Governor Antoine said, noting that, “Our countries need credit enhancement, and that has to come from the guarantees. I really feel this is a missed opportunity where we have to push the envelope to really bring this about.”
- Catastrophe Risk Pools: In the wake of the devastating passage of Hurricane Ivan in 2004, the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) commenced operations in 2007, becoming the first multi-country catastrophe risk pool in the world. CCRIF SPC, as it is now called, has inspired ARC in Africa, PCRIC in the Pacific, and SEADRIF in Southeast Asia. “This innovation came from small states and their lived reality of constant climatic shocks. Evidently, we are well able to craft solutions and bring them to life with the right partners,” the ECCB Governor said.
Governor Antoine also took the opportunity to hail the work that the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley, has done in championing the Bridgetown Initiative, not just for the Caribbean but for the people of the Global South.
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