Governor, Dr. DeLilse Worrell’s Review of the Barbados Economy for the first six months of 2010 – Click link to watch video
Governor Delisle Worrell Delivers Half Year Review Of The Economy
101 responses to “Governor Delisle Worrell Delivers Half Year Review Of The Economy”
-
Heard David Ellis making a serious point on the talk show today. Barbadians appear to be oblivious to the dark economic clouds hovering on the horizon.
What will it take for Barbadians to understand these are serious times?
Our politicians continue to play politics with this matter.
Advice to Barbadians from BU, be cautious with spending especially YOU who are having no problem jumping on a plane to Miami to holiday.
-
David
Tanks for de advice cause I heading to NY shortly not Miami. Not me n Miami bosey. 🙂 -
An example of politrix is Mascoll stating that the US is out of recession and implying the obvious. All know that there has been jobless growth in the US and the outlook is very uncertain. It is these kind of political statements which only serve to mislead. The good point he made however is why the Governor did not use net international reserves as the measure as has been done in the past.
-
I want to congratulate the Central bank governor in presenting a more acceptable review of the economy, in terms of the information on the economic sectors. We can better see what is happening and plan better.
Alarming is the fact that tourism has dropped 68m despite the bump up from World Cup, a good thing they had the Kensington Oval to host it or we would have been in ducks guts. In addition corporation tax is down by 25% which is a tremendous drop meaning that approximately represents 100m in loss to gov’t revenues. This is an indicator of not only a downturn in tourism but the construction, manufacuting, agriculture and retail sector are experiencing severe issues. This is affecting homes – check the foreclosures and homes being sold by banks as people are unable to meet mortgages.
We need to hear form the gov’t about its response, and give direction to the citizens; we need a budget to provide stimulus to the business secotrs especially small people like myself, so we can keep out workers employed. Silence is not acceptable.
-
David
Mascoll??????????
stupseeeeeeeee, he is bare hog pupp. -
@David,
Bajans have radio,tv,newspapers and computers. They know the rest of the world is still in recession.
Politicians cannot be blamed for not creating panic and are obviously trying to manage a very difficult situation.
Barbados has no natural resources and the two main Industries, Tourism and Offshore Financial services depend on thriving economies in the rest of the world.
The rest of the world is in recession. Barbados will continue to suffer.
I live in Canada and I have had to tighten my belt. Wanna can do de same.
-
@Hants
Couldn’t agree with you more. Barbadians remain in denial.
-
The external environment is difficult, very difficult, but we are the masters of our fate.
It makes a big difference how and what the Government spends money on. It makes a big difference how and what the Government raises in taxes. It makes a big difference how the Government uses its balance sheet, like guaranteeing Four Seasons or other critical projects. It makes a big difference how the Government uses its concessions, planning permissions etc.
A key difference is a sense that we are indeed masters of our fate and not adrift without a paddle in choppy seas; that we have a plan and it is being implemented. Not having a budget for so long is adding to the sense of drift. In most countries in trouble they have 2 or even 3 budgets not none in 12 months.
Almost all small emerging economies are dependent on the external environment, but not all are experiencing our fate. Singapore is booming. Hong Kong is prospering. Mauritius is surviving. Bermuda is managing. We, according to Governor’s report on GDP, unemployment, deficit, and debt to GDP, are sinking. Why are we headed towards a repeat of the early 1990s?
In business you know you are doing the wrong thing when you are not expecting recovery but hoping for it and we are basically hoping for it based on our hopes for the US and UK economy. That is not a plan, it is a prayer.
-
Who is going to step up to the plate in terms of strong and effective leadership at this time. The people can only do so much by themselves. These are trying times for the country and the people ought to know through strong goverance what lies ahead for them and with good fiscal responsibilty and foresight we would weather the economic storm. This is a challenge for the ruling party and now is the time for them to be truthful .
-
@ David
Denial??!!
Most Bajans, like Hants says, know that there is a very serious situation facing us. But some of us are downright idiots. ‘ Tall boy’, the BLP voice who likes to hear himself on VOB, is a case in point.
….the man goes on and on today about how things are getting harder in Barbados and how the foreign reserves have fallen…… well duhhh!!….how do they think that all the cost overruns left by their gang are being paid…? with breadfruit?
Many of us think that a recession is where we have to limit our overseas travels to only once or twice per year – with this one, we may find we need to limit our meals to once or twice per week…..
-
People on the call-in programmes, some political, some ordinary citizens speaking about the report and the state of the economy. One guy pointed out here is a crisis, nothing is being said no leaderships being exercised and the gov’t is spending money on none essentials, such as parties to handover keys. Ellis said oh but that could be seen as stimulus keeping someone in a job, and he reminded the audience that Owen arthur said that you must not contract spending to the point where you further harm the economy. Ellis told Mascoll he never heard the DEES condemning foreign direct investment in the country – he was probably on vacation when the Dees in opposition talked about selling land at the highest price to foreignors and how this is the wrong strategy; giving away the family silver; people coming and taking up Bajan land and putting it out of reach of the ordinary Barbadians; and no foreign investor will be able to get land on the Scotland district; we must have a parliamentary vote to take land out of agriculture.
Ellis started out the programme stating we must exercise care in how we spend and manage our resources during this crisis etc. By the end of the progrmame arguing with a guy who said that parties DEES spending money on is wrong when they are tellling us to tighten belts; telling civil servants to hold strain. He could actually defend it but could not condemn the cuts to services for ordinary bajans. Cutting education and health budgets; not a penny to boost our small businesses but they will stimulate the economy with free camps, parties, forums. Meanwhile poor women depending on reverse tax credit to send school children in September cannot get it and tax refunds not paid. If people had this money they could spend it and businesses would not experience such a shortfall. The gov’t could get it back in vat and corp. tax. The sacrifice is to be made by the people – job losses, businesses closing meanwhile they will spend to prop up a political agenda to get votes.
This gov’t is not serious and cannot be relied on to make the best choices for us given the difficulties facing this nation. This crisis is serious and its biting hard. it requires serious and competent leadership to manage it better. Nobody in their right mind could feel that this is being handled competently. That is not making its impact vanish, that is wishful thinking. Prudent allocation of resources in activities that give maximum support to the econnomy, and it is not in catering. spread out gov’t spending among more players in various sectors to keep it alive not concentrate spending with large companies. Serious prudent and competent leadership.
-
@Bush Tea
The unwillingness of Barbadians to make adjustments in lifestyle is telling us alot about how we are educating our people. When we peer into the bowels of our economy it is distribution and construction which account for a significant percentage of our employment. This state is not sustainable. Imaging the airport full of Barbadians heading to Miami and Puerto Rico? Are they spending peanuts or foreign exchange? Is foreign exchange scarce or not? Where is the leadership? Who will stop the drift? If some Barbadians can’t assume personal responsibility in this situation the government must do it for the national good.
-
@ Black Business
Those countries which are able to hold their heads above water are those that made hay while the sun shone.
They put aside reserves when things were good. They invested in productive projects. The spent their money wisely and prudently.The last set of idiots that ran our economy spent millions on:
~CSME
~Greenland
~3S
~A prison that cost more than our police plant
~Hardwood Inc
~GEMS
~Barrack building
~ Kensington and World Cup
~ Over runs attached to each of the above
~etcSee if you can work out why we are sinking now….and how we would stand if we now held and extra $2 Billion in hand.
-
How is RECESSION defined?
-
@Enuff
You are doing what economists do well. So you have negligible growth for two quarters, so what? What are the employment numbers saying? Until people get employed will they have the confidence to travel? What about the lag of 6-12 months which it will take to trickle out to economies like Barbados. Enuff you are on BU man.
-
@ David
The honest truth is that we dropped the ball in the late 1990’s. The difficult period after the Sandi era should have jolted us into recognizing our vulnerability. We should have built up our savings, focused on productivity and invested in efficiency during the really good years of the BLP era.
Instead we adopted the attitude that good times were here for ever, and instead if saving, we actually WENT INTO INCREASING DEBT during the boom times.
We spent like there was no tomorrow. Inflated salaries and ignored productivity. We gave everything free for everyone….
free uniform
free bus fare
free education
free health care
free national insurance
free school books
free school meals
free camps
free drugs
free free free
Now that the ‘time of famine’ is upon us, it is too late to plan to save…..save what?!?I recall the bushman questioning the sanity of both David Thompson and Barack Obama when they sought to assume responsibility for two countries which, like the Titanic, were already doomed when they fought for the controls.
Where there in no vision, the people will perish…..
-
@David // July 14, 2010 at 7:15 PM
An example of politrix is Mascoll stating that the US is out of recession and implying the obvious. All know that there has been jobless growth in the US and the outlook is very uncertain. It is these kind of political statements which only serve to mislead. The good point he made however is why the Governor did not use net international reserves as the measure as has been done in the past.
I am surprised that you think that anyone still takes the “Emascollator” seriously. At his best Clydie was a solid gold technician, tinkering with measureable concepts. But he was no politician. If he had played his cards right in 2007(?) HE could have been Acting PM, right now rather than Freundel Stuart. BUT PERISH THAT GOD-AWFUL THOUGHT!
-
Hog pupp ???????
-
David then all you need to do is develop your own economic theories and definitions. I know I am on BU, so I expect some commonsense contributions not baseless rants and apologies. BU is fast become the place for apologists once certain threads appear.
Interesting article:
http://www.broadstreetjournalbarbados.com/news/policy-differences-said-to-be-causing-budget-delay
-
Again Enuff you would agree with BSJ run by Hoyos a BLP apologist and he has published an article by Tony Best who is one also.
-
@David despite that we recognize the source of the article it does raise good questions about our economy and the way forward. We need to either find some oil, somewhere anywhere, or find some other way to earn foreign exchange. Whether we accept it or not offshore business will start to shrink, as US and other large economies come under fiscal pressure and look for ways to keep jobs and corporation taxes within their economies. Manufacturing, which was allowed to whither on the vine by successive governments, must be facilitated, concessions must be given. Attention should be paid to jobs going to places like India to see if we can compete. We have all of our eggs in one basket and odds are it will not end well.
-
@ David
Heard Mia and Owing today on the 12.30 news? How pathetic!
Mia was lamenting the lack of direction from the current government on dealing with the economy – at least calling for a budget.
Of course she is correct.
However she must surely know that if her lot could not provide sensible direction during the good times, then the current lot can hardly be expected to’ jump to it’ during unprecedentedly bad times.Anyone who seriously thinks that ANY action taken now by this government can forestall the inevitable, needs to wake up.
We are at the stage where the Titanic has already contacted the iceberg.
Avoiding the problem would have required action IN ADVANCE of this contact.- by her government (that’s why it is called VISION).The DLP not only took up the wheel of a doomed vessel, but foolishly promised calm waters…..even now they have been reluctant to reveal to the passengers the extent of the damage below deck, or even to detail the obvious incompetence of the previous skipper.
Time to look for a lifeboat BU family….
Owing was talking about CSME at a book launch, and sounded resigned to it being a no-go. He is blaming ‘nationalism’. Even now he seems to miss the point that there is a CLEAR hierarchy of self, family, community, COUNTRY and THEN region, etc.
….. It does NOT work the other way around.
…what a waste of good Bajan resources over the past 15 years resulting from his misguided fetish. -
@BT
Yes indeed, the resignation in Arthur’s voice was very evident. What would have caused it you ask? Was it insularity to which he referred or the reality of a lost legacy setting in?
-
I agree with you 100% Bush Tea, I think CSME was more about building a personal legacy for Owen than any true symbiosis of national and regional interest. I believe he was interested in a political union and saw himself as the likely president, being perhaps the most popular leader in the caribbean at the time.
-
Insularity and insecurity! Bajans are so myopic in their worship of the “The Rock” ! This belief that CSME means everybody will leave their countries and overrun Barbados! For what?
Isn’t time that we saw that we were miles ahead with Federation! When the walls come crumbling down and we seek the protection of the OECS Central Bank to join the EC regime I hope our cousins will forgive our zenophobia for which we have long been well known. -
Forgive the ignorance of the lowly BU household but can anyone explain Mia Mottley’s position that the government needs to spellout a plan for Barbados economic recovery? Isn’t Barbados suffering a local recession in the centre of a global recession? It has been stated above our main foreign exchange earning is from tourism and FDI, if the global economy is in recession how is Mottley suggesting we jump-start our economy? Bear in mind we import almost everything as well we strive on an economy which feeds on fossil energy.
-
Some enlightenment for those who need it. Bajan businesses which sell to 270,000 people will always have high costs, so Bajans will have higher cost of living. Businesses which sell to 14 million CSME people earn so much more and thus operate at lower costs, and thus lower the cost of living. The future growth of Bajan businesses depend on this expansion, so unless the people who bemoan CSME are prepared to breed rapidly, our businesses will continue to rise fall and die. Lack of growth will lead to narrow business operations limiting growth and limiting demand for specialised skills, so our UWI students will continue to leave our shores and prop up other economies after we spend in excess of 180,000 taking them to their first degree. If we do not grow we will die. The alternative is to ‘sell bajan land’ to grow foreign exchange, jobs and government earnings. That will run out. Economic policy gurus – who think CSME is not important and some body’s wet dream have no understanding of what to do craft a future for nation. Would not recognise a vision if it passed them and said hello. The only place our goods and services are welcome is in CSME because of that treaty. Ever wonder why banks beer is not selling like hotcakes in US among our disapora, difficult to get a permit to import it. What would the pontificators do to create an economic future? Caricom a come from. We might have to have a generation rot in the desert before it comes but come it will.
-
I notice that some people cling to the idea that today’s problems were all caused by yesterday’s leaders. You do not need to be a DLP die-hard to say more could have been done by the last government, mistakes were made and opportunities missed. But it is imortant not to let party politics blind our sight.
Here are the stark numbers presented by the new Governor, in 2007 the last full year of the BLP Government the level of debt including all the PPP stuff like the Prison, was 77.8% of GDP. By June 2010, this had risen to 97.2%. This is the biggest rise in two and a half years that we have ever seen.
Our total debt outstandiong has risen from $6,283m in 2007 to $7,854m in June 2010, a jump of $1,500m or 25% in just two years.
Tax revenues as a percent of GDP actually rose (dramatically) over this period as a result of the restrictive budget of 2008, from 30.2% to 34.2% last year but are due to fall back to 30.2% according to the Governor. In dollar terms, revenues are therefore steady around $2.5bn now and in 2007, so this rise in debt is not the result of falling tax revenues as the recession sunk in, but increased expenditure.
Government expenditure as a percent of GDP rose from 31.8% in the last BLP year to 44.4% last year and is expected to fall back to 38.8% this year according to the Governor. A jump in expenditure as a percent of GDP of 7% is the biggest cost overrun of all as it is a reoccurring overrun with very little new infrastructure to show for it. In dollar terms expenditure has risen from $2,324m in 2007 to $2,879m in 2009, a jump of half a billion dollars extra spending per year or a leap of 24% in just two years.
Ask any family what would happen if in recession they were lucky enough to get the same income as before, but as a result of the tough times their expenditure jumped by 25% in just two years? It can only spell a disaster one way or another.
And what do we have to show for this increased expenditure? Has it been a sustainable investment in our future? More kids going to school? Less unemployment? Better infrastructure like hospitals and schools and sewers and roads and….?
-
The Barbados economy is so perilously close to a complete wreck that Barbadians ought to set aside their political differences in the interest of the country. Within six months Barbados will be in total and absolute chaos.
Sky rocketing unemployment, totally depressed economic activity, dwindling foreign exchange reserves, shrinking balance of payment reserves and a general shortages beyond what we have seen in decades and don’t mention exports thats going to be an extinct creature similar to a dinosaur.Acting PM let me tell you something, see that Infrastructure Committee of Cabinet…….make sure you Chair it each and every time to meets and read all of the files and all of the minutes and try make projects happen rather follow the others who are pre-occupied with lining things up for friends and incentive based arrangments.
STOP WASTING ANYMORE TIME AND STIMULATE THIS ECONOMY, IF NOT, NOT EVEN THE POLITICANS WILL BE ABLE TO QUELL THE FINAL AND ULTIMATE RESULTS.
-
@ Wuhloss
Wait, where you coming from? Who said anything about people over running Barbados? Tourism has been Barbados’s business for decades – we did it well. We have always been one of the most welcoming places in the Caribbean….
The strongest case for CSME has always been that those against it are ‘zenophobic’ and other long words….. what nonsense.
Bush Tea is against CSME because it makes no sense whatsoever – apart from building a legacy for Owing and providing an opportunity for those who would like to see Barbados knocked down a few notches….– Everyone is welcomed to Barbados, but Bajans should be special people in their own home. CSME required us to pass laws to make Barbadians no different to anyone else in Barbados.
– Millions of dollars were spent pursuing this nonsense. Money that could have been invested in something useful like alternative energy.
– Countless hours of productive time was spent in changing laws, holding meetings, talking junk. Time which could have been directed to productive issues like public sector reform
– People’s interest were distracted from the REAL issues like productivity, strategic planning and preparing for the hard times – by the false expectation that there was some hope in this CSME nonsense.
-Even now as most sensible people have come to recognize the scam, some continue to cling to the idiotic belief that if we had a common market all will be well.
@ Black Business
If in your own family situation you lived high on the hog for the last 15 years when you had a good job, and you accumulated no savings, acquired high debts, and spent all your time talking about forming some community group.
After you retired and handed over control of the household to your number 1 son two years ago, who do you think should be held responsible for the family’s situation now that the hard time hit we?
With work hard to find, and facing your huge debts, what would you expect your son to do now?
Stupsssseee@ Bajan Truth
You think that CSME is the only common market plan in town? So when we form this common market, …suddenly everyone will want to buy our beer?
Ya joke!!
You don’t think that Jamaican beer and Guyanese beer will also be on sale here?
Do you know that those beers are made with labour paid at rates which are a fraction of ours?
Do you know that Trinidad’s energy costs are a fraction of ours?
Who will buy our expensive products?……NO ONE!!! that is who….
…so we will be forced to cut our production cost in line with CSME partners – JUST TO LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD.
At first it will be attractive to us to buy cheap products….. until we lose our jobs when no one (not even Bajans) buy ours. You know how cheap legal/medical/engineering/general services are in other jurisdictions?
Trust me Sir.
The only sensible plan for us is to create such high quality products and services that we can fetch suitably high prices from special niche markets. This requires creativity, intelligence, productivity, good leadership and high education (not necessarily academic) standards.
……OK, the bushman admits that from all appearances we do not seem to have the capacity for this approach , but it is the ONLY approach that can possibly work.Sinking to the lowest possible denominator (CSME) is nothing but a suicide option.
-
Dear Bush Tea,
Your analogy is wrong. The analogy is that after years of living comfortably off the family business and steadily increasing debt levels, the father leaves the family business to the son. The business falls upon hard times, yet the son is able to put up his prices so that this income is the same as before, but, he spends like there is no tomorrow on freebies and brightly coloured things and in two years adds more debt than the father did in almost ten years. He increases his annual reoccurring spending by 25% in just two years and then as the baliffs ring the bell, he blames the father for everything and takes responsibility for nothing…..
No one side has a monopoly of blame, neither the government nor its predecessor, but the government of the day is the one tasked with doing something about the situation, at least to make a bad situation slightly better, to spread the pain better across time and sectors, to find new opportunities and to reinforce existing ones, but not to resign. The task is a very hard one, but to quote Lamont, so far at least, “this Government gives the impression of being in office but not in power”.
-
Good try Conrad.
“….living comfortably off the family business and steadily increasing debt levels,”
*********************************************************************************************
That sound too sweet! LOL
…but it is just a bright fellow’s way of saying what the bushman said. ….It certainly is not making hay while the sun shine.Actually I also agree with you that the current government has no real clue what to do. My point is that the challenge is so complex that only intelligent action commenced decades ago could have seriously impacted the situation…. what they going do?
As to the large increases in the debt levels – how do you expect that the big contracts like 3S, VECO, and all the other imported trimmings of the father’s “living comfortably off the family business and steadily increasing debt levels”; were going to be paid for?
Also, if the father hid high levels of debt in BOLT arrangements, issued open ended MOUs for million dollar ABC projects and entertained hundreds of millions in cost overruns, what magic do you now expect from the (literally) poor son?
Where was the vision? -
BUSH TEA
I could not have said it better myself.
These Barbados Labour Party supporters are operating on the belief that, as Grantley Adams said, Bajans have short memories.
As far they are concerned the Barbados Labour Party played no part in the current difficulties we are now going through.
That is why I am so disappointed with Democratic Labour Party for allowing these crooks to remain free. The whole world need to know what the level of evil was in Barbados under the BLP.
-
Summary: The BLP were crooks that wasted money; the DLP are incompetent, clueless managers.
-
“……..Dr Anthony, however, warned the NDC(Grenada) to avoid the mistake he made of getting “the economy right but the politics wrong,’’ and losing power as he did in St Lucia.
Dr Anthony suggested dialoguing with people and consoling the unemployed and dispossessed.
“Politics is about people,’’ he said. “It cannot be managed remotely from behind a desk.’’ (St. Lucia Star)Bajan truth it would do you some good to listen to Dr. kenny Anthony
-
Barbados, thank goodness, is now governed by a people party. The Dear Loving Party.
-
It is the poor state of Barbados debate that if anyone criticises the government of the day, the logic of the argument is brushed aside on the basis that they must support the other guys. When you have tired stupsssing and wanted to consider what we can do then look at the numbers the Governor set out. I have just gone through them myself and behind the comforting words, the Governor thinks he has to say to ensure there is no panic, it makes shocking reading.
Remember, the new Government re-stated the debt levels to include all the previously off-balance sheet financing under PPP. Got that Bush Tea? We are using re-stated numbers that include all the PPP stuff. with all the cost overruns.
The level of debt on this restated basis under the old Government was 78% at the end of 2007. It has now risen, without any new anything, to 97% in two years, a staggering rise based on a 25% rise in reoccurring expenditure not a drop in revenues. You add up all the excesses of the last Government to $2bn over what 15 years- I doubt it is that large and we got a few bricks for that. But in just 2 years this Government has added $1.5bn to the national debt without anything to show for it and without it reflecting any big drop in tax revenues or any big employment program, or hospital rebuilding or any capital expenditure program on drains, pipes and sewers. Its frightening guys. It is real serious. It is time to panic because mush of what we value in our way of life would be put at risk with 20% unemployment.
If you care to look through the politics to the numbers you will see that the problem is to some extent public sector wages but also a big increase in subsidies to the statutory corporations, run by politicos out of sight. The Transport Board is a major culprit. The Hospital is another. When you see that you know this is not just about a global recession, it is not just about what happened 15 years ago, it is about how efficiently we spend/waste our money today, how much oversight there is. This could be changed if we had politicians with guts, but we have gutless politicians who would rather do nothing and blame the previous lot. That is fine when things are going swimmingly, it is not fine when we are in the mess we are in.
Just wrap your head around this figure. Today our annual expenditure is $500m higher than it was two years ago. What investment in the future are we getting for this extra $500m per year – not one off, per year. And remember our total revenues are $2.5bn per year, so we have calmly decided to spend an extra 20% more than we earn every year.
I say to my DLP friends, if you want to get re-elected, show me a plan to deal with this. Dont tell me everything is under control while you cant even get a budget together. Dont sit their smugly blaming the other guy, or the Americans or Europeans as the economy nosedives (down 7%! last year with unemployment double what it was at the end of 2007) and spending is spiraling out of control.
-
@Conrad
That is some scary analysis. Your conclusion that this government has not delivered on its election mandate for change agrees with BU’s position and other commenters.
-
The Governor of the Central Bank of Bank, Dr. Delisle Worrell, on Tuesday issued a public release ( video and written data ) on the performance of the Barbados economy for the first half of 2010.
In this release, Dr. Worrell highlighted a number of so-called economic variables within the so-called Barbados economy and how they supposedly performed over the first 6 months when contrasted with the first 6 months in 2009 ( in the case of the unemployment variable for the 3 months – Jan – Mar, when contrasted with the corresponding quarter of 2009).
However, we will select a few of them and how they performed to support our argument that the so-called Barbados economy is in a SEVERE DEPRESSION and getting worse!!!
But, before we do so we are still awaiting information from the Government’s chief economic advisor on how this economy – having declined by 5.3 % in 2009 – and we are here using this percentage figure from the January 12, 2010 Central Bank Report on the performance of the Barbados economy for the year 2009 – could have been able to, so drastically, achieve a rebound by the first quarter of 2010 ( Jan – Mar) sufficient to register a – 0.1% rate of growth, so dramatically, without there being any mass physical evidence of it.
Or worse yet, according to the first quarter 2010 Central Bank review in April of this year of the performance of the Barbados economy during the said first quarter 2010, how it could have been able to manage a rebound, so dramatically, from the previous year’s (2009) first quarter performance of – 4.8% rate of growth in economy – without there being any mass physical evidence whatsoever of this sudden turnaround.
While we are aware that the Governor in his first quarter 2010 media conference on the economy made mention of the REMEASUREMENT of the Barbados economy, and the subsequent incorporation of some details of such in some of the figures he used like the gross government debt to GDP ratio, or in arriving at % of the fiscal deficit, we are ABSOLUTELY SURE that statistically this REMEASUREMENT has been used to FALSELY MAKE BELIEVE that the economy is performing better than believed.
Hence, the same statistical rebound mentioned in the earlier paragraph!!!!
So, the so-called Barbados economy – having lost about BDS $ 425 million in money value in 2009 – was able to miraculously lose only BDS $ 8 million in the first quarter of 2010, or is it a further BDS $ 8 million added to that BDS $ 425 million figure? – without there being any where seen in Tourism, Manufacturing, Construction, Agriculture, in International Business, etc. all combined at least BDS $ 100 million ( BDS $ 425 million divided by 4 quarters ) of activity in the first quarter of this year.
What a ransacking of the minds of some people in this country by the Central Bank!!!
-
To what extent is the Governor suppose to inspire confidence in his reviews of the economy? Should he be brutal in the way of the political opposition? Should he mix it up i.e. we are in a recession BUT…?
-
So the DLP listened to Dr Anthony and got “the politics right but the economy wrong” ! Yep, they won the election but lost the country. My Grandmother use to say “Follow fashion kill Cadogan”, I never thought I would actually “see” this .
-
Anyhow, the variables that we select from the review of the first half of 2010 along with their supposed performances are:
1) the rate of DECLINE in the Barbados economy INCREASED BY 1.0% in the first 6 months of 2010, when contrasted with a 3.0 % DECLINE in the so-called Barbados economy in the first 6 months of 2009 ( see on line review by the CBB of the economy for the first 6 months of 2009).
2) Although Central Bank information on the performance of this variable for the first 6 months of 2010 is terribly sadly unavailable, we can only estimate based on our own calculations that unemployment now must be about 12- 12.5. % in the country – so it has worsened,
3) The Government’s fiscal deficit was only marginally LOWERED to 8.6 %, when contrasted with a level of 10.2 % in the corresponding period of the first months of 2009.
4) The gross government debt INCREASED from 89.7 % of GDP in the first 6 months of 2009, to 97.2 % in the first 6 months of 2010.
5) The deficit on the current account of the Balance of Payments INCREASED to 5.2% of GDP when contrasted with 3.2 % of GDP in the corresponding first 6 months (taken from the accompanying data in the written data of the public release).
and,
6) The international reserves FELL by BDS $ 68 million to about BDS $ 1.1 million, when contrasted with a BDS $ 94.8 million decline in net international reserves for the corresponding 6 months of 2009 ( see on line review by the CBB of the economy for the first 6 months of 2009).
Now, it is clear that those variables and other relevant ones paint a depressing picture of the so-called Barbados economy being, at present, in the throes of a severe political economic depression, and in some cases worse than what obtained in1991 ( we are not providing any contrasts with that time at this time).
And not only do they paint such a wicked picture, but ALL those variables mentioned above except one – 3 – indicate that when contrasted with the first quarter of this year 2010 – things political material financial are worsening.
So realize the following too that there was –
1) a 0.1 % decline for the first quarter 2010,
2) unemployment went to 10.6%, for the first 3 months of 2010.
3) the fiscal deficit was 5.9% for the first quarter 2010,
4) the gross government debt was 93.4 % of GDP in the first quarter of 2010,
5) the deficit on the current account of the Balance of Payments was termed no assessment available in the Central Bank review of the first quarter 2010,
6) The international reserves were deemed by the Governor in his first quarter review 2010 as holding steady.
Nevertheless, the primary cause of this worsening depression is the gross and reckless mismanagement of the so-called Barbados economy by both DLP and BLP Governments over the last 25 years or so.
Of course, this level of mismanagement, which has itself emerged from the utter incompetence and ineptitude of the DLP/BLP manaagerial classes, has been signifying that these joke people ensure that the following plus more evil and anti- masses, anti-middle classes, anti-productive anti-investment systems or behaviourial trends remain or remain in a thoroughly unreformed deficient state to the further decimation of the material productive and distributive and financial affairs of this country:
1) TAXATION,
2) INTEREST RATES,
3) INSTITUTIONAL REPAYABLE LOANS,
4) THE IMPORTATION OF GOODS AND SERVIES INTO BARBADOS ON THE BASIS OF FOREIGN “PRICES”,
5) THE EXPORTATION OF LOCAL GOODS AND SERVICES FOR FOREIGN “PRICE”/CURRENCY,
6) EXCHANGE RATES PARITIES WITH THE BARBADOS DOLLAR,
7) THE DANGEROUS MANIPULATION OF THE MONEY SUPPLY BY THE GOVERNMENT AND SOME OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS,
8) MOTOR VEHICLE INSURANCE,
9) THE HIRE PURCHASE SYSTEM,
10) TREMENDOUS AMOUNTS OF LAND SPACE RIGHTS IN THIS COUNTRY BEING SOLD FOR ASTRONOMICAL “PRICES”, WAY ABOVE ADMINISTRATIVE/NOMINAL COSTS,
11) HUGE AMOUNTS OF ALARMINGLY HIGH PROPERTY RENTS IN BARBADOS,
12) THE GARGANTUAN SIZE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF BARBADOS,
13) THE STAGGERING COST OF FINANCING AND OPERATING THE GOVERNMENT,
14) THE STAGGERING AMOUNT OF GOVERNMENT DEBT AND THE ENORMOUS COST OF REFINANCING THAT DEBT, AND
15) THE MAINTENANCE OF THIS EVIL WORK CULTURE IN BARBADOS, RATHER THAN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NATIONAL BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS CULTURE.
Such itemized evils and dysfunctions, and the political laws and agreements giving rise to them, have made sure too that in multifarious ways there IS FURTHER REGRESSIVITY in two EARTH-SHATTERING DESTRUCTIVE phenomena:
1) the worsening of the INSTITUTIONAL PRODUCTIVE DEBT AND INVESTMENT LOSSES CULTURE in the country,
and,
2) the deteriorating of the NATIONAL OUTPUT FOR MONEY DEBT CULTURE in Barbados.
These two and the 15 plus more evils and dysfunctions have in turn made sure that the so-called Barbados economy has gone further into political economic depression, that something called unemployment increases, that the fiscal deficit of the government remains to big, that the gross government debt goes further through the roof, that the deficit on the current account of the BOP worsens terribly, and that international reserves continue to deplete.
Well, peoples, we have said over and over before what needs to be done to rescue Barbados and its political material and financial affairs out of this deepening depression.
And, we will NOT repeat at this time what needs to be done politically materially financially in this country to help bring about such, other than to say that both the DLP and the BLP must be sent packing from the parliament of this country within seven years time so that some others who have the nation and people of this country at heart and who have the necessary programs and such like will take their places and really help lead Barbados better and further into the 21 st Century.
So, Down the Damned DLP and the Blasted BLP!!!
PDC
-
Who is writing this stuff for the PDC. Slow down and get someone to help you put your ideas into “digestible “form. If you cannot put forward your ideas in an intelligent way why on earth do you think someone would vote for you?
Yes, many of us would like to vote for another party beside the BLP or DLP but at the moment , you come across as a less than serious party. Please find someone to help you shape your message.
-
We in trouble boy, SERIOUS TROUBLE!
I am listening to Mia and can’t help but stupse. I can’t stand frauds!!!!!
I would never be as foolish to be like DT or Obama!!!!!
A sinking ship!!!
Stupse!
-
JC
Forget Mia.
Have you ever visited Ch CH Parish Ch? -
I heard opposition leader Mia Motley say that the Central Bank included $200 million in short term borrowing in the reserves and that the accounting rules say that such short term borrowing should not be included. If this is true then I am beginning to think that Central Bank cannot be trusted to provide unvarnished data to the public.
Also it seems as if the Commercial Banks decided on their own or were asked by the Government and/or the Central Bank not to repatriate their profits. All in an attempt to shore up the reserves.
With many months of economic hardship left what will we do next? Remember when we borrowed a paltry sum of around $10 million from Belize to help our foreign reserves? I hope we are not headed back there.
If we are on that path, please tell as now so that we can be prepared.
-
Yes GP, I have. I remember attending couple funerals and having the honor of reading someone’s eulogy.
Don’t think that I want to kill you!!!!! LOL
But to your question Yes!
-
I attended many funerals and weddings there in the 60’s as a choir boy. When I take visitors to Bdos around the island, I always take them there to see the stained glass windows of the ascension and the Chase’s vault……………and of course the pipe in the graveyard.
It is definitely one of my favorite places in Bim. I hate how they destroyed old Oistins though.
-
JC
“We in trouble boy, SERIOUS TROUBLE”
Just because Mia say so . Don’t make me laugh! Some of these people are not even good lawyers, their chosen field, further more good economists.
Mia is not to be taken seriously, unless you are a BLP follower.
-
JC
I know that you dont want to kill me……..but you might anyway LOL Poor GP He want to run wid de young chicks.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.