The International Monetary Fund Executive Board concluded its 2025 Article IV consultation with Suriname, warning that fiscal and monetary slippages in 2025 have eroded earlier gains in macroeconomic stabilization even as near-term growth is expected to remain solid. The Board urged a policy course correction focused on improving the fiscal balance, meeting reserve money targets, and advancing structural and governance reforms to manage the transition to large-scale offshore oil production. GDP growth is slowing due to declining gold production, while slippages have reduced cash buffers, weakened the currency, and pushed inflation back into double digits. Gross debt is estimated at 106 percent of GDP, mainly reflecting a liability management operation, and the current account deficit is estimated to have exceeded 30 percent of GDP due to oil-field investment imports mostly financed by foreign direct investment. Directors called for significant fiscal adjustment in 2026, including measures to raise the primary surplus while safeguarding priority investment in human capital, such as resuming electricity subsidy reductions, restraining the wage bill, broadening the tax base, and improving tax administration through digitalization. On monetary policy, they recommended using open-market operations to bring reserve money to target, progressing toward a new monetary policy framework, strengthening central bank capacity, and limiting foreign exchange intervention to narrowly defined disorderly market conditions. The assessment also pressed for stronger bank risk-management and supervisory monitoring including nonbank financial institutions, full and timely implementation of public financial management and Sovereign Wealth Fund legislation, and governance reforms including amendments to the anti-corruption law, operationalization of the procurement law, and further strengthening of the AML/CFT framework. The authorities consented to publication of the staff report, which the IMF said would be published shortly, and the next Article IV consultation is expected on the standard 12-month cycle.

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