The Pisas government's near-term policy focus will be the same as its predecessor's: to revive the economy from the blow dealt by covid-19. Success is likely to depend on global tourism returning to pre-pandemic levels. On a positive note, the coronavirus infection rate on the island has dropped from a peak reached in January amid the spread of Omicron. As a result, the island has now removed most of its restrictions on international travellers, as well as on domestic mobility and activity. However, the vaccination curve appears to have flattened; as at mid-March just below 70% of the population had received two doses (just 3 percentage points higher than in December 2021). This will keep the island vulnerable to any future, potentially more deadly, variants of the virus; as such, the possibility of restrictions being reimposed at some point cannot be ruled out.

Other items on the government's policy agenda include boosting production and exports by diversifying the economy; improving public-sector efficiency and tax collection; strengthening and expanding tourism; restarting operations at the Isla refinery and the Bullen Bay Oil Terminal; increasing alternative energy generation; developing a second port at Vaersenbaai Noord; and improving co-operation with the other Dutch Caribbean islands. However, Curaçao's scope for undertaking recovery measures will depend on the level of Dutch financing that it manages to secure. By early November 2021 Curaçao had reportedly met the conditions needed to obtain its seventh post-pandemic tranche of financing-worth Naf76m (US$42.5m, or 1.4% of GDP)-from the Netherlands. This involved establishing various measures to reduce excessive spending at the Social Insurance Bank, undertaking reforms to the tax authorities and making efforts to reduce losses at the Curaçao Medical Centre. The disbursement of further financing this year will be conditional on the implementation of these reforms. We expect Curaçao to make steady progress on doing so throughout the forecast period.