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Economy Faces Serious Macro Economic Challenges Says Governor Haynes

The fear of Barbadians who have followed the performance of the local economy for the last ten years had their fear confirmed by Governor Cleviston Haynes today when he delivered the Economic Review for the last quarter of 2017. After TWO terms the policies of the incumbent government continue to fail to jolt the economy…

“…Ultimately, the medium term growth performance will hinge on the performance of foreign exchange
driven activities...”

The fear of Barbadians who have followed the performance of the local economy for the last ten years had their fear confirmed by Governor Cleviston Haynes today when he delivered the Economic Review for the last quarter of 2017.

After TWO terms the policies of the incumbent government continue to fail to jolt the economy back on a sustainable growth path. Given the structure of the Barbados economy the one indicator that points to failed economic policies is the sinking foreign reserves. Governor Haynes confirmed that the foreign reserves have now reached a crisis level of 6 weeks import cover and continue on a downward trend. The IMF Article IV Consultation Report for 2017 also highlighted the falling reserves, ‘... current account balance continues to narrow but international reserves are falling‘ and the opening paragraph of the Central Bank Report, ‘During 2017, the Barbados economy continued to face significant macroeconomic challenges associated with declining international reserves, weak public finances and the need for the implementation of measures that create a platform for sustainable growth over the medium-term’.

Central Bank of Barbados Review of Barbados’ Economic Performance in 2017.pdf

To stoke concerns of Barbadians about the current economic state of the country, Economist and former minister of finance in Greece, Yanis Varoufakis cautioned local authorities that the Barbados economy is in need of an urgent fiscal adjustment- he recommended a reduction in the size of public sector, debt restructuring and a mild but significant devaluation with some type of inflation targeting. BU is not qualified to say if to devalue or not- clearly we need to address government spending, increase productivity in the country especially in the export sector, address debt servicing challenges and a dose of private sector investor confidence. How will a devaluation attack these systemic problems we have failed to effectively address in the last two decades?

The fear of the BU household is the certain knowledge of how an incompetent government commingled with a disengaged citizenry  will antithetically respond with a general election weeks away .

#JAs

127 responses to “Economy Faces Serious Macro Economic Challenges Says Governor Haynes”

  1. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Tron February 2, 2018 at 4:28 PM #
    “With economists like Jeremy Stephen, the caveman, Haynes, Sinckler´s puppet, and Worrell, the wryneck, Barbados will sink. The faculty for economics at UWI did not do a proper job at all.”

    You have omitted Sir Frank the academic architect of the Bajan economic sarcophagus.

    Now we have another academic whippersnapper Dr. Moore telling us that Devaluation would not be of any benefit as if the decision to devalue is within the ambit of the circus of economic clowns on the Hill.

    So if devaluation is not of benefit then what are the costs of Not devaluing? A totally failed state where people would be robbing and eating one another to survive day by day?

    Barbados will be forced into devaluation as a result of self-inflicted wounds of incompetence and misplaced hubris.

    If the hard-ears jackass of a MoF is not even listening to the other quack Dr. JR regarding the restructuring job of the fiscally sick SOE’s given to him by the IMF 4 years ago do think he is going to listen to a bunch of academic jokers who have never earned a dollar of forex in their lives?

  2. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    Miller,

    Some poison kills you in seconds, other poison only weakens you.

    Let us compare Barbados and Greece. Greece is bound in a Procrustean bed called EUR zone. The EUR is the extended version of the German Mark, too stable and too strong for traditional Greek economic policy. It is common opinion amongst economists that Greece would be by far better off with its own currency, but that it would be very hard to revert the decision to join the EUR zone made many years ago.

    Barbados NEVER signed any international treaty with the USA to join the USD zone with a 50 % discount. It is only national pride which forces Barbados into the Procrustean beg.

    I do not claim that devaluation is good for Barbados. However, better a mild poison than the ongoing economic massacre.

  3. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Tron February 2, 2018 at 5:24 PM
    “I do not claim that devaluation is good for Barbados. However, better a mild poison than the ongoing economic massacre.”

    Like you, no one would claim Devaluation per se is good for Barbados. But what other medicine is there for this fiscally and economically comatose country?

    All kinds of medication have been prescribed by all kinds of doctors including some well-known specialist like Dr. IMF and that born-again (turncoat) economic saint, the ‘worried’ Dr. Worrell with his 3 year long list of prescriptions to avoid the disease called “Devaluationitis”.

    And what has the lazy self-inflicting diseased patient done about the doctors’ advice other than to ‘accelerate the decline’ towards a deeper moribund state of economic and social stasis?

    The only medication left is to staple the stomach of the conspicuously consuming obese animal and force it to work harder for its keep and in the process lose a tremendous amount of ‘weighty’ fat from the body belonging to the army of occupation aka the public sector cocoon of parasites.

    Let the parasitic make-believe middleclass earn the forex needed to pay for its opulent lifestyle as manifested in the many high-end vehicles unsuitable to the pot-holed makeover cart roads and their 4 bedroom 3 people wall-houses which would be considered mansions in Japan while the vital sewerage systems are collapsing and the public transportation- a vital artery in the country’s economic circulatory system- is going the way of the dodo bird.

  4. Fractured BLP Avatar
    Fractured BLP

    Good morning, my loyal subjects of Barbados 🇧🇧

    I , King 👑 Freundel Jerome Stuart, now declare to you the following:

    • The Appropriation Bill for 2018 / 2019 will be debated in the House of Assembly during the week of February 13 th , 2018 .

    • There will be no General Elections in Barbados 🇧🇧 during the Lenten season.

    • There will be no General Elections in Barbados 🇧🇧 before the 25 th Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting to be held in the United Kingdom from 19 th April , 2018 .

    Your Majesty will give you further updates, as is necessary.

  5. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Fractured BLP February 3, 2018 at 11:40 AM

    As expected, the fast making of a true budding black dictator in real West African banana republic style.

    Afraid of the people. Afraid of an unrigged ballot box.

    That means the Estimates will be laid on the 6th February, one week before Parliamentary debates begin as is the custom in true Westminster/Commonwealth Parliamentary style.

    What a laughing stock of a fool he would be making of himself! A jackass among hogs! The only jackass present to have ridden his country into the ground. Even King Keith Mitchell would have a mandate to justify his presence.

    We can guess that these “Estimates” will be reflecting Stinkliar’s 5th incarnation of his boldly imaginative recovery plan for the holy ‘stinkhole’ Barbados without a new mandate from the sheeple-people.

    By the way, would King Fumble be taking a cask of the Bajan drinking water to England to prove that his banana republic’s water is still the best in the world just like its rum made from imported molasses?

    Would he be handing out samples in bottles made in China with the label “Taste the lingering ‘Fragrance’ of the Bajan South Coast Pit Toilet”: Compliments of his shitty Cabinet whose ‘sell-by-date’ has expired since February 23rd

    While your King Clown is at the HOGS meeting he should take a little time out and instead of remaining at Great Russell Street to browse the nearby book stores to quench his thirst for sesquipedalian loquaciousness and satiate his hunger for magniloquence
    he should take a trip to Stuart Hall aka Kingston-Upon Thames and take a ‘cold’ bath in the river overflowing with human waste as if he was back home relaxing on Worthing beach on the South coast.

  6. Lorenzo Avatar
    Lorenzo

    Fractured Dunce ,why you do not go and help clean the Sewerage that has resurface up there or better yet getthe king to hurry and resolve it before that mess causes allthe Dems sitting MP,s in Christ Church to lose their seats.You focusing on the wrong things as Mr Payne and Mr hinkson cannot help you J/A.

  7. Fractured BLP Avatar
    Fractured BLP

    Lorenzo

    Bee 🐝 off

    Go back to your cage at the zoo

  8. Fractured BLP Avatar
    Fractured BLP

    Good afternoon, my loyal subjects of Barbados 🇧🇧

    I , King 👑 Freundel Jerome Stuart, now declare to you the following:

    • The Appropriation Bill for 2018 / 2019 will be debated in the House of Assembly during the week of February 13 th , 2018 .

    • There will be no General Elections in Barbados 🇧🇧 during the Lenten season.

    • There will be no General Elections in Barbados 🇧🇧 before the 25 th Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting to be held in the United Kingdom from 19 th April , 2018 .

    Your Majesty will give you further updates, as is necessary.

  9. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Fractured BLP February 3, 2018 at 4:52 PM

    You are repeating your filth all over the place as if you are suffering from a runny case of verbal diarrhea picked up from too much eating in the sewer.

    You dirty rat, why don’t you just return to the South coast sewer and take a slumbering break like RIP Van Winkle while you ‘Jack’ off the sleeping giant.

  10. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @Blogmaster

    Is there a depth of obscenity at which you will draw the line, or is this all free speech?

  11. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    WASHINGTON, DC – “Follow the money,” goes the saying. And, in fact, the money – that is, the changing roles of the renminbi and the US dollar – is perhaps the best way to understand the rise of China in a world dominated by the United States. Over the last ten years, the dominant economic story was about Chinese exports reshaping global trade. But the story of the next ten years could be about China’s emerging role at the heart of global finance. (Quote)

    Does the above change the syntax of the patois about foreign reserves? If so, how? Are the days of the Greenback as the global trading currency numbered?

  12. Theophilius Gazerts 263 Avatar
    Theophilius Gazerts 263

    Man you got me looking through 111 comments for obscenities and I ‘cannot find any’
    You sensitivity is what has your p̶a̶n̶t̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶b̶l̶o̶o̶m̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶p̶o̶k̶e̶r̶t̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶t̶e̶c̶t̶o̶r̶ underwear tied in a knot.
    Leave the blogmaster alone

  13. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    A king???? Who or what is this fractured person? I thought the prime minister was elected as a servant of the people. Is this the thinking then? Really?!!!

  14. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Hal, cussing relieves some of the stress. Leave it be!

  15. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Donna February 4, 2018 at 2:10 PM #

    I am stressed when I realise how Barbadians have normalised vulgarity. I was brought up in Sister Waite’s inn Mayer’s Land (maternal grand mother)and Bethel Methodist (on my father’s side) the New Testament Church of God in Belle Gully (my mother).
    Let us try to have a debate without foul language or hostility. We must set good examples to our young.

  16. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    What makes a cuss word a cuss word?

  17. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Donna

    This is the silly season….and being the yard-fowl Fcuktured BLP is…she is definitely in her element.

    Either cuss her to relieve the stress……..or ignore her.

    Hahahaha

  18. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Artax, under this government that I helped to elect, albeit with serious reservations, we have sunk to the bottom of the shit hole. The fact that they could still be facing us with all the irrefutable evidence of their failure and that supporters like that fractured ass still exist is something to cuss about.

  19. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    There will be no General Elections in Barbados 🇧🇧 before the 25 th Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting to be held in the United Kingdom from 19 th April , 2018 .
    …………………………………………………

    ……..And pray tell me what will be the benefit of this fumbling moron attending this meeting. What will be the benefit to Barbados other than for Fumble to pocket more of our money? Does he ever speak at these meetings?…..why he does not speak to us so why would he want to speak overseas………..just going on a joy ride.

    Do you mean to tell me that these morons intend to bleed this country until the last drop is gone?

    #friggingidiots

  20. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Donna February 4, 2018 at 2:42 PM #

    “The fact that they could still be facing us with all the irrefutable evidence of their failure and that supporters like that fractured ass still exist is something to cuss about.”

    Donna

    But what is more ludicrous is the fact that they are BLAMING Greenland, HM Dodds Prisons and the Supreme Court as among the causes of their failures.

    I watched a video of Michael Lashley addressing the party faithful at a recently held DLP political meeting (the reality of the situation is that these so called joint constituency branch meeting are actually political meetings).

    Lashley spoke a whole heap of shiite to a group of cheering and applauding yard-fowls. He did not discuss anything of substance or what his immediate plans were for the addressing the transport woes, especially since the Transport Board can manage to have only 62 units in operation per day.

    And it boggled my mind how party supporters could feel proud allowing politicians to offer them shiite and tell them it’s Cadbury whole nut chocolate……and they readily accept it……. while saying “it taste good.”

  21. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    These things were well known when they promising interest free car loans to all civil servants. The costs of these projects were no secret. Is that all they have?

  22. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    When they promised interest free car loans.

  23. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ David BU:

    Could you use your ‘contacts’ to find out from the guv of the CB why he continues on the same path as his fired predecessor by including in his portfolio of tourism-related investment projects the Hyatt hotel as an outstanding source of foreign exchange to shore up the foreign reserves?

    Why is he counting the Hyatt forex chicken before it actually hatches?

    Where does it say that Hyatt will be financed by foreign investors/lenders?

    Why is he (in collusion with MM) keeping this secret away from Bajans?

    If this project was a real (and not an imaginary) FDI project why can’t he, the MoF or the ‘couple of weeks’ MoT say so and put any speculation of trying to raid the NIS to rest?

  24. Roverp Avatar
    Roverp

    “I will never accept that whenever the Barbados economy gets into trouble that the workers are to be the fall guys in this exercise all the time to bring it back to respectability. We have to find other ways to ensure that we can correct our problems. If the workers have done nothing wrong why should they be the victims of all this?” this from PM Stuart a pure election gimmick and statement.The truth is PM that the heads should be sent home for poor performance but you can not do that as you need them to carry out DLP propaganda and self interest programs. If the PM had the ability to cut wages he would have done that long ago like the 8% cut and still not solve the problem of poor management.

  25. Roverp Avatar
    Roverp

    None in tourism want to recognize the 74% tourism leakage rate problem. That is one of the real issues with our economy.

  26. Roverp Avatar
    Roverp

    RED HERRING time from the DEMS!!!

  27. Roverp Avatar
    Roverp

    Formula for DLP to win election…tell nuff lies ….tell huff lies…create FEAR ….create FEAR….Blame everyone and everything…Blame everyone and everything….Buy vote via last minute appointments and as much government giveaways as possible….spread rumor ….past A POLICE FEAR ACT

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