At the conclusion of the visit on June 25, 2010, the mission issued the following statement:

“In May, the IMF Executive Board approved a three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement in an amount equivalent to SDR 22.365 million (US$33.3 million) to support Guinea-Bissau's medium-term economic program, and also approved interim assistance under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative of SDR 1.016 million (US$1.5 million).

“Economic performance through May has been satisfactory, and the authorities have made good progress on structural benchmarks established for mid-2010. We are encouraged by the authorities' commitment to implementing their reform program that aims for stronger economic growth and poverty alleviation.

“Continued satisfactory performance under the program will help pave the way for Guinea-Bissau to reach the HIPC Initiative completion point in late 2010. Debt relief under the HIPC Initiative and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), with additional debt relief from bilateral creditors, will alleviate significantly the debt burden and help Guinea-Bissau advance toward external and fiscal sustainability.

“As the authorities in Guinea-Bissau continue to implement their economic program, we plan to return to Bissau later in the year to evaluate performance under the ECF through the first half of the year.”