Seychelles’ performance under the economic reform programme has been very strong and successful, the new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to the islands, Mrs Carol Baker, has said.

She called on President James A Michel on Tuesday in the company of outgoing IMF mission head Jean Le Dem.

“The Seychelles economy has been extremely resilient given how the global economy is, especially if you look at the tourism arrival number for example, although Europe is facing challenges,” she told the national media.

Mrs Baker cited the completion of the submarine fibre-optic cable as one of the areas of growth.

“We have positive outlook but there are risks, so what we try to ensure is we can make the economy as strong as possible so that we can keep moving forward, so we never have a situation where we do have a downturn,” she explained.

Her delegation is in Seychelles to discuss the sixth performance review under the IMF’s programme. 

According to Mrs Baker, an extension of the programme is not necessarily needed but if there would be one, the IMF would be looking at a very weak global economy and allowing the economy to become stronger “before we move to a different type of engagement”.