Guinea-Bissau: IMF calls for ‘transparent and competitive’ cashew campaign

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday called for Guinea-Bissau to carry out a transparent and competitive marketing campaign for cashew, to ensure a consistent reference price compared to the price on the international market.

Tobias Rasmussen, head of the IMF mission for Guinea-Bissau, said the preservation of an environment conducive to private sector activity would support the recovery of economic growth in 2019.

An IMF mission carried out a visit to Guinea-Bissau this week to assess the country’s budgetary plan for 2019 to consolidate public accounts and to debate the evolution of the financial sector.

According to the IMF, the economy of Guinea-Bissau was under pressure in 2018, with the GDP falling 3.8%, after having grown 6% between 2015 and 2017.

The fall in GDP was due essentially to lower production and a drop in the price of cashew, the country’s main export product.

Rasmussen explained that cashew exports had fallen by around 25%. The deficit rose to 5% of GDP against a target of 2.5%, he said.