Seychelles must work on rebuilding its economic buffers, said the head of an IMF mission currently in Seychelles to take a temperature of the island nation's economy.

IMF Chief of Mission, Calixte Ahokpossi, made the statement to reporters on Thursday after paying a courtesy call on President Wavel Ramkalawan at State House.

Ahokpossi said the second review report highlighted the fact that the most pressing economic challenge facing the Seychelles' economy as a small island developing state, apart from Covid-19, is rebuilding the buffers.

"During Covid-19 your buffers were eroded, now it's a matter of rebuilding those micro buffers and strengthening the economy and making it more resilient in case there is another shock. Those are the key priorities right now," he added.

Ahokpossi said that the visit was also a chance to "assess how the relationship is going as part of our economic and financial programme with Seychelles."

The IMF is supporting the economic reform programme of Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, with a $107 million lending arrangement.

The IMF disbursed the funds on July 1, 2022, after the completion of its second review of the country's economic performance, which took place between late April and early May of this year.

A previous team from the IMF headed by Boriana Yontcheva was in Seychelles from April 26 to May 9 this year to discuss the second review of Seychelles' economic and financial programme supported by the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement.

In its report of the second review, published in June this year, stated that "Seychelles' economy strongly recovered in 2021, with GDP growth exceeding expectations," however, it did caution that "the surging commodity prices are expected to weigh on the external and fiscal balances in 2022."

Other points made in the report were that the "government made impressive progress in implementing the EFF program and restoring macroeconomic balances."