(Seychelles News Agency) - Seychelles is on the right track as it continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and the December 7 disasters, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission chief on Tuesday.

Todd Schneider made the statement to reporters after meeting with the President of Seychelles, Wavel Ramkalawan, at State House.  

“We talked about Seychelles’ economic performance in 2023, which was slightly lower than we had anticipated, mainly due to the December disasters, but otherwise it was a relatively stable outcome from 2023,” said Schneider.  

The country suffered two major blows on December 7, 2023. Heavy rainfall caused severe damage to roads, flooding, and landslides, with damage to several properties and three people died.

The same day, an explosion of four containers of explosives at a quarrying company in the Providence Industrial estate caused massive damage to residential homes and commercial buildings, along the east coast of the main island of Mahe.

The IMF mission is in Seychelles to conduct the second review under the new Extended Fund Facility (EFF), which was agreed in May 2023.

The three-year arrangement for Seychelles under the EFF in an amount equivalent to $56 million, as well as a three-year arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), equivalent to $46 million.

The last review of the EFF was done in December 2023, which allowed for the immediate disbursement of about $12.3 million to help strengthen macroeconomic stability, boost inclusive growth, and strengthen fiscal and monetary policy frameworks. It will also support efforts to build resilience to climate change, exploit synergies with other sources of official financing, and catalyse private financing for climate-related investments.

The IMF executive director representing Seychelles, Robert Nicholl, also met with Ramkalawan on Tuesday.

He explained that his discussions were mainly about some of the fundamental characteristics that make things challenging for Seychelles, such as its size, which makes it vulnerable to external shocks.

“Like many small countries, the after-effects of the pandemic have been quite hard, especially with Seychelles having a been tourism industry, but I would say that Seychelles is doing very well and is in a good position,” added Nicholl.