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Barbados’ 2017 Six Months Economic Performance Labeled as ‘Uneven’

Acting Governor of the Central Bank, Cleviston Haynes

The Barbados economy registered an uneven performance during the first half of the year. Preliminary data suggest that the expansion in real economic output continued into the second quarter, primarily reflecting sustained growth in tourism activity. The fiscal deficit narrowed moderately in the first quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2017/18, partially the result of the fiscal consolidation measures implemented in the previous fiscal year. However, the stock of international reserves fell below 10 weeks of import cover, owing in part to expected external debt service obligations and the on-going delays in securing planned foreign investment inflows. The context for this outturn is that the Barbados economy has underperformed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, as evidenced by low growth and significant fiscal and external imbalances. The Government of Barbados has, particularly since 2013, sought to contain the fiscal deficit through a range of tax and expenditure measures, but the fiscal deficit has remained stubbornly high. Over the three preceding fiscal years, the fiscal deficit has been out of line with available financing as access to financing on the domestic and international capital markets weakened, resulting in a sharp increase in accommodation from the Central Bank.

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97 responses to “Barbados’ 2017 Six Months Economic Performance Labeled as ‘Uneven’”

  1. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    What was the most telling statement for the NSRL…..was when the MoF stated that the requests of the unions to remove the NSRL could be met if only the private sector would send 60M or even 40M from their overseas accounts to the Central Bank.

  2. David Avatar
    David

    Is there a government anywhere that takes on a fight with the private sector especially if it is firmly mired in an economic hole for 7 years? Even Abed was begging Stuart to show some urgency. What was agreed? Reports will be distributed, meetings will be held by September, cabinet and then parliament will deliberate -this will run into the Christmas break, by February 2018 some attempt to make some decisions will be attempted all with a general election on the horizon.

    The idiocy!

  3. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Why would central bank allow the private sector to remove so much foreign exchange from Barbados over the years……

    ……why would Sinckler and previous ministers of finance allow that flight of foreign exchange from the island to begin with……knowing it would ultimately disable the island financially,

    They all have been too corrupt for too long., the people should not have to pay for their corruption.

  4. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    “Is there a government anywhere that takes on a fight with the private sector especially if it is firmly mired in an economic hole for 7 years?”

    Yes. Venezuela.

    As I predicted in March, the guns and the machete are ruling the island now.

  5. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    https://youtu.be/B1t3zLEk2xw

  6. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    https://youtu.be/EmKpSa0hvOc

  7. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    The MOF admitted that he is out of options…………hence nothing can be done with the NSRL.

    He said banks are not lending to government, the NIS has told him he cannot get anymore cash as they have investments to make and pensions to pay and the CBB has told him they have reached their limits………..

    The PM wanted this event televised for what reason? Did he want to show up the unions and the private sector?

    I think it was the government who was shown up for presiding over the destruction of the economy and it was clear they do not have a clue how to get out of the black hole they have thrown this country in.

  8. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    https://youtu.be/0SP2cXoeOxY

  9. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    I know next to nothing about economics, finance or running a country. However what is evident from the videos above is that the policies of a Government can either make or break a country regardless of the natural resources the country may possess.

    Barbados is in crisis. Do we follow Venezuela or Peru? I know Barbados is a small island in the Atlantic but there are problems that seem common to those countries and Barbados n.b the problem of printing money.

  10. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    Are our national planners taking note of developments in Guyana? I am posting one more video on Chile. What is instructive about Chile’s situation is the effect of ideologically driven policy and the effect of isolationist policies on economic development.

  11. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    https://youtu.be/3fJsaw7ql_I

  12. Hamilton A Hill Avatar
    Hamilton A Hill

    The disingenuous nature of this administration is unprecedented where local politics is concerned. The Prime minister and his team sat down this morning knowing full well their predetermined decision. That meeting, carefully orchestrated was made public to drum up support from gullible souls who are too blind to see that once again the heavy lifting is left to the weakest in society. They are fiercely against any coping subsidy, and the dreaded NSRL is going no where. To the trade unions I say this. While the grass is growing, the horse is starving. Exactly wha wanna waiting fah?

  13. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    I did not hear the MoF speak…..however from Gov Haynes comments, and his focus on “financing”, it suggests the NIS well is almost dry, and he realizes the consequences of printing more money. He is also concerned the deficit reduction strategies, largely collecting additional tax monies and selling public assets, are unlikely to be realized to their fully budgeted extent.
    At 35.54…”restore some kind of rectitude to our public finances”…hmmm…interesting choice of words?

  14. Hamilton A Hill Avatar
    Hamilton A Hill

    Akani I did wanna call you but my phone ain’t working…..dat one better than “de dog eat my homework “.

  15. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    The MOF’s back is against the wall…………

    He admitted that the banks which are awash with money are not lending him a cent, the NIS only has enough now to pay pensions and the CBB aint printing any more money.

    So he asked the unions to find someone with foreign accounts to bring back home the money…………..is this not an admission of failure?

    As I remember this government borrowed 30 million dollars from CIBCFCB and invested in a Brazillian Development bank………..were they ever able to borrow from this source or did they get back the money invested? These are things we need to know.

  16. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    How wunna expect a sow to purr? When the 1st quarter review came out, many here on BU made clear that prospects for the rest of the financial year were not good. As has been the MO of the government and the previous GoCB, growth is always based on potential sales and projects and for the past 9 years not one has materialised. #worseguvmenthandsdown

  17. Carson C Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C Cadogan

    Akanni made it very clear yesterday who is at fault. He went into the Warrens supermarket with $100.00 to buy goods for some one he knew and came away with little for the money.

    The merchant class, the private sector who were sitting next to him, mark up their products in their supermarket 500% and more causing hardship in Barbados.

    Yet he was afraid to turn to the private sector sitting next to him and ask them for an ease in their pricing policy. He had the ear of CHARLES HERBERT right RIGHT NEXT TO HIM there and then and he refused to use that golden opportunity to ask for an ease for his BLACK PEOPLE.

    What a sellout.

  18. Carson C Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C Cadogan

    Why is it that the Barbados Private sector always has to be headed by someone from the PLANTATION CLASS?

    CHARLES HERBERT’S performance yesterday was dismal to say the least.

    Nothing he said made any sense.

  19. David Avatar
    David

    Here is what he should have done: instead of going to the former Warrens Supercentre formerly owned by BS&T (a transaction the late David Thompson promised to stop on gaining office, #ignorance), he should have skipped up the road about a mile and entered Cost-U-Less instead, a company given a wash pan of concessions to consume forex to import food.

  20. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Ping Pong
    Leadership is E V E R Y T H I N G.

    Put an idiot in charge of Heaven and in a short while, you will have Hell.
    Put a bushman in charge of Hell… and you end up with Heaven.

  21. Hamilton Hill Avatar
    Hamilton Hill

    Question for you Carson…..if you were not so cowardly hiding behind the moniker Carson Cadogan, would you write the racist shite you do? Do you have any video footage of the $1,000 a plate affair held at Ilaro Court over the weekend of independence? Plantation masters and house niggers like you and Angela….send we de footage na?

  22. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    David August 12, 2017 at 8:03 AM #

    Believe it or not the T&T Massy has some cheaper stuff than the USA&Bim Cost-u-less.

  23. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    PM the bull fighter……only in Bim.

    The bull had to be held by its horns, says Stuart
    Prime Minister Freundel Stuart told Barbadians today that the National Social Responsibility Levy (NSRL) was not introduced “by stealth”, but resulted from extensive discussions among experts in the…
    barbadostoday.bb
    https://www.barbadostoday.bb/2017/08/12/the-bull-had-to-be-held-by-its-horns-says-stuart/

  24. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Carson…I can’t say the government is not getting what it deserves.

    The man in the street is not amused, yall do remember the man in the streets right, the poor ones who have the numbers, over 150,000 of them to vote you sell outs …right out of office right.

    The same poor people whose money you take by the hundreds of million to give away to minority parasites and the mangoste, remember them.

    In the very near ensuing months…yall will see that there are not and will never be enough Bizzys, Cows, Bjerkhams, Maloneys etc to reelect you to parliament…

    ……. but there are sure enough poor people in the streets to vote ya treacherous asses right out of parliament.

  25. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    David, not so fast. Just the ‘udder’ day CostUless had a calf selling at $557 or something like that.

    However, it so happened that that small cow was cut n wrapped in plastic and mislabeled as 7lbs!

    If I didn’t know better I would actually believe the 500% claim by the political operative but these high prices are certainly not caused by exorbitant markups…

  26. David Avatar
    David

    @Dee Word

    It was a ‘tongue and cheek’ comment. The reason given by the then government (same DLP) was that Cost U Less presence in the market would disrupt and lead to lower prices.

  27. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    “Viewsnight: Our addiction to economic growth is killing us
    In this Viewsnight, anthropologist Jason Hickel argues that our addiction to economic growth is killing us and makes the case for “planned de-growth”. Hickel is the author of The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions.”

    Economic growth as created by this system…is unreachable and destructive.

  28. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    http://www.redflagdeals.com/flyers/sobeys/weekly-better-food-for-all-aug-11-to-aug-17-2017-94046/

  29. Carson C Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C Cadogan

    SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP, SERIOUSLY?

    What was made very clear for Bajans to see yesterday at the Hilton Hotel, was the collusion of two of the social partners against the Govt. CHARLES HERBERT sat there for a whole day talking nothing of any importance . All he did was to try to bash the elected Govt. of Barbados. I was watching and waiting for him to tell Barbados how his private sector would reduce their sky high margins on products in their businesses and help the most vulnerable in the Barbados that he profess to love so much. But that love does not extend to helping BLACK Bajans pockets. The Trade Union movement sat next to CHARLES HERBERT and refused to appeal to him for some ease. What I saw yesterday on TV was two sides of a so called social partnership going all out to brow beat the third side of the social partnership, the Govt.. It was really disgusting to watch.

  30. Carson C Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C Cadogan

    I noticed that no one in the Private sector or the Labour movement at yesterday’s meeting at the Hilton Hotel were signing the “go to the IMF song” any more. Whatever happen to that agenda, they suddenly don’t want the Govt. to go the IMF?

  31. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Carson…they are going to shut down the country and force yall asses out of parliament, Fruendel gave them no choice….hope they do it in grand style.

    So no more feteing, celebrating and wasting taxpayer’s money.

    Commonsense..

    Yall got a 2% NSRL tax from Sept 1 last year, ya collected millions cause ya still celebrating and feting tourists…

    Ya asked for an additional 8% NSRL tax…cause ya eyes are now much bigger than ya stomachs, ya got greedy, not caring how many families, women and children will suffer, starve and become homeless.

    ..the unions are willing to compromise, ya can get an additional 4% NSRL tax..,1/2 what ya requested, which will bring ya tax intake to 6%…..free mone…

    ….., but no, ya greedy, ya want everybody to suffer, all at the same time and still vote for you next year, while they suffer, yall partying and celebrating with their money…and give it away to whomever you please…after yall wasted so much money in the last 9 years, taxpayer’s money and pensioners money….oh hell no.

    ..plus it looks like yall still giving away the people’s money and properties to the parasites and mangoste Bjerkham and Maloney……

    …..so what value are the people, the majority, getting for all yall are taking from them for yaselves and giving away to minorities…where are the benefits to the people.

  32. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    ..the unions are willing to compromise, ya can get an additional 4% NSRL tax..,1/2 what ya requested, which will bring ya tax intake to 6%…..free MONEY $$$$$$$$$$$$$.

    MoneyB….where are ya.

    This government got a nerve though, has it occured to them that they can make up their 4% projected NSRL shortfall, when they accept the union compromise, by collecting all the money owed to them for decades by these same business people.

  33. Carson C Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C Cadogan

    “they are going to shut down the country “”

    That is fine for you to hope for. Someone who is living in another man’s country and don’t have a vote in Barbados.

    We all know that HERBERT wrote to our Prime Minister promising “Social Unrest”.

  34. David Avatar
    David

    There is a vice note circulating on WhatsApp that BU will not post promsing untold violence to be unleashed soon on on the Barbados landscape.

  35. Carson C Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C Cadogan

    Well if that voice note is circulating now, HERBERT promised “”Social Unrest”” a couple weeks ago.

    We will see what we will see.

  36. Carson C Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C Cadogan

    I HOPE THAT YOU ALL UNDERSTAND THIS:

    “For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”

  37. Carson C Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C Cadogan

    or if you prefer this version:

    “For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”

  38. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    The PM said yesterday that he does not see where there are “these people that are suffering so badly and things being so hard”………………..

    I had to shake my head …………..this man clearly lives in a bubble……..there again how would he see the sufferings of the people when he is asleep most of the time??????????

  39. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    What was Eddy Abed’s role yesterday?

    Calling for more meetings to sit down for hours like they did yesterday?

    To achieve what?

    The MOF admitted yesterday that he has no other options and he is out of ideas.

  40. David Avatar
    David

    When all is said and done Abed is a seller of cloth and Sinckler not sure what he was before becoming a minister. What we know is that he has been allowed to ‘cut he teet’ on the Barbados economy for the last 7 years.

  41. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Oops…had this on the wrong thread.

    Carson……or is it 5% NRSL the union is offering, which is even more generous, it ups your tax intake to a whopping 7%…..I think it was 5% they said.

    Fruendel and Sinckler are being unreasonable.

    Fruendel and Sinckler are being greedy.

    Abed did not close his store or allow his employees to march, so Fruendel, in true petty form, projected an image of singling out Abed for special consideration of his ideas….which really means more useless talk and no action.

    Carson….shut down the country and social unrest….are two completely different things.

    Shutting down the country paralyzes a government…no unrest necessary. ..you cannot force anyone to work at gunpoint.

    I am yet to see this letter where Herbert said there will be social unrest…if I cant see it, it dont exist.

  42. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Yall know ya can’t drag that scam out to election June next year without severe consequences and punishment right….ya have no wiggle room left whatsoever.

    Dont mind me and where I have a vote, worry about the votes yall will not get ever again..

    The biggest worry I have is if I want to drink beer, brandy, wine or water today.

    I am a lady of total leisure.

  43. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    As I see it, that meeting was only smoke and mirrors.

    The government is playing for time, just kicking the can down the road. Charles Herbert in his wrap up sensed that is what the government is doing and called the morons out.

    The PM and Sinckler clearly did not like it especially as Charles Herbert told them this was no time for all the smiles……….which we clearly saw the Lashleys doing quite often. These people are not serious, they think everything is a joke.

    We can see now that the two resident JA’s were given the talking points…..attack Charles Herbert.

    It does not take an economics degree to understand that if no one is lending this MOF any money…….neither the banks, the NIS nor the CBB…….the MOF has no options left.

    Follow my logic………..you have no options, you told the meeting yesterday that you need the increase in the NSRL to help plug the hole for the monthly requirements………how is waiting for September to see how much money is collected going to prove? To see what?

    Are the unions going to fall for this scam? The government is broke, it has no money to give any social allowance far less salary increases. With a pay increase, the total emolluments will naturally increase thus creating more problems……..

    Unions what are you waiting for?

  44. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    The unions are now holding all the cards.

    If they move wisely, they can make sure Fruendel and his gang never get to pull this nasty stunt again, it will also send a serious warning to any new government…planning to waltz into parliament and waste, waste, waste, while giving away everything to minorities, their friends and families….and willfully neglecting the majority population..

  45. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    Well Barbados is still standing on its own, given the latest Central bank economic report. Fiscal deficit shrunk, 2% economic growth, falling unemployment; however the foreign reserves continues to be eroded. We have not totally falling through as former PM OSA predicted. Lets hope for continued gains for the rest of 2017 and beyond.

  46. David Avatar
    David

    If the forex continues to fall what do you think will be the result?

    > >

  47. Carson C Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C Cadogan

    Well Well

    “The unions are now holding all the cards”

    One of these days you will write something sensible.

    Four unions together could not even raise 400 marchers. Then they turned to the Mongoose and beg him for help because they were being made fun of because of the low turnouts of their marches.

    The Mongoose then appealed to its members to pay all their workers a days pay and order them to march or else.

    You are funnier than barrel of monkeys.

  48. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David wrote ” If the forex continues to fall ”

    Hope they keep enough to buy food and medicines.

  49. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Carson…..not my fault if yall cannot see what is happening.

    It will not be my household crippled.

    Not my fault that yall uppity slaves will be playing right into Herbert”s hands….do you see him with anything to lose.

    …not even the unions can lose at this point.

  50. David Avatar
    David

    To borrow from the Governor our foreign reserves are at an uncomfortable level. We need generate forex to pay the bills.

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