Government officials this week denied allegations made in a weekly newspaper that the government would be devaluating the local currency.

The staunch denial comes after an October 17 article in Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly, which claimed that President France Albert Rene had signed a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) informing them of his intent to devalue the Seychelles Rupee.

Speaking to the press this week, the principal secretary for economic planning, Mr Ahmed Afif, described the contents of the article – which he said conveyed the impression that the government had agreed to devalue the rupee at the request of the IMF – as misleading.

"The government maintains its position as it announced on July 1, and immediately prior to that, about its plan to carry on with policies of fiscal adjustment, tightening of monetary policy and eventually moving into trade liberalisation and removal of controls,” Mr Afif said. 

“This is the path we want to go and we do not believe that devaluation is an option for Seychelles at this juncture – we are not going around these lines at all," he said.

Referring to recent visits by officials from the IMF and the World Bank, Mr Afif said their regular working missions in the country were part of ongoing negotiations between Seychelles and the two organisations.

Through their visits, Mr Afif said, the officials have conducted certain technical evaluations of the current Macro-Economic Reform Programme (Merp) to see if everything presented to them was in order.

"They have to check the facts, the statistics, the tables and our assumptions," Mr Afif explained, adding that IMF and World Bank personnel have carried out several working missions so far to evaluate certain aspects of the programme.

Mr Afif said that despite some differences of opinion, the government has had excellent discussions with IMF and World Bank officials and expressed hope that they would move towards an agreed programme in the near future.  

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