IMF Staff Concludes Visit to Guinea-Bissau

October 1, 2019

End-of-Mission press releases include statements of IMF staff teams that convey preliminary findings after a visit to a country. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF’s Executive Board. This mission will not result in a Board discussion.

At the request of Guinea-Bissau’s authorities, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, led by Ms. Concha Verdugo-Yepes, visited Bissau from September 18 to October 1, 2019 to carry out a preliminary diagnostic of weaknesses in fiscal governance, market regulation, anti-money laundering and anti-corruption policies and practices.

At the end of the visit, Ms. Verdugo-Yepes issued the following statement:

“Guinea-Bissau faces deeply-rooted problems of weak governance and corruption, which need to be addressed to allow Guinea-Bissau to realize its economic potential and improve the living standards of the population. A first step towards this objective is to develop a comprehensive national anti-corruption strategy that focuses on adopting sound practices related to public financial management, tax policy, revenue administration, rule of law, anti-corruption, and anti-money laundering regimes. The IMF looks forward to continue to cooperate closely with the authorities as they develop such strategy.

“The IMF mission wishes to express its gratitude to the authorities for the constructive discussions and for their warm hospitality.”

The IMF mission met with President José Mário Vaz, Prime Minister Aristides Gomes and Minister of Finance Geraldo Martins, other high-level officials, and representatives of the private sector, civil society and the international donor community.

IMF Communications Department
MEDIA RELATIONS

PRESS OFFICER: Gediminas Vilkas

Phone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org

@IMFSpokesperson