A mission from the IMF visited The Gambia at the end of October to assess performance for the seventh review under the extended credit facility (ECF) programme. A three-year ECF was approved in 2007, and in early 2010 it was extended and augmented; it is now worth a total of SDR24.9m (US$38.5m) and will expire in February 2011. Performance under the ECF weakened in the first half of 2010 but appears to be back on track. The IMF mission that visited the country in May postponed the seventh review owing to fiscal slippage. The fiscal deficit was 1.8% of GDP in 2009, compared with a budgeted surplus of 0.1%, and performance remained weak in the first half of 2010 as revenue fell short of the official target (October 2010, Economic policy). The government announced measures to tackle this and in June it raised the fuel price for the first time in two years and lowered spending plans. It also discussed long-term reforms with the IMF, such as widening the tax base and introducing a value-added tax by 2013. Helped along by decent economic growth, the short-term measures have led to an improvement in the public finances; the government ran a surplus in the third quarter of 2010 and is on track to maintain this in the fourth quarter. The improved performance means that the IMF Executive Board is now likely to pass the seventh review in early 2011, releasing the final tranche under the ECF.