<p>The International Monetary Fund 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 </p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p> <p>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. <br></p><p>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.</p> 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. <br><p></p>