September 6, 2019
End-of-Mission press releases include statements of IMF staff teams that convey preliminary findings after a visit to a country. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF’s Executive Board. This mission will not result in a Board meeting.
- Barbados continues to make good progress in implementing its ambitious and comprehensive economic reform program.
At the request of the Government of Barbados, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) team led by Bert van Selm visited Bridgetown from September 3–6, to discuss implementation of Barbados’ Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) plan, supported by the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). A concluding meeting was held with Prime Minister Mottley on September 6, 2019. To summarize the mission’s findings, Mr. van Selm made the following statement:
“Barbados continues to make good progress in implementing its ambitious and comprehensive economic reform program.
“All indicative targets for end-June under the EFF have been met. The target for the government’s primary surplus was met with a wide margin, with the government running a primary surplus of 2½ percent of (annual) GDP in the first quarter of FY2019/20. This bodes well for achieving the government’s primary surplus target of 6 percent of GDP for FY2019/20. International reserves were also well over program targets at end-June.
“Good progress has been made in implementing end-June and July 2019 structural benchmarks under the EFF. The authorities have completed a review of the tax system and the Governor General has proclaimed the recently enacted Financial Management and Audit Act.
“Progress being made by the authorities in furthering good-faith discussions with external creditors is welcome. Continuing open dialogue and sharing of information will remain important in concluding an orderly debt restructuring process.
“The team is looking forward to return to Barbados in November to conduct the discussions for the Article IV and second review under the EFF and would like to thank the authorities and the technical team for their openness and candid discussions.”
IMF Communications Department
MEDIA RELATIONS
PRESS OFFICER: Randa Elnagar
Phone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org
@IMFSpokesperson
@ larenzo
We share the same view.
@ Mari
There is nothing wrong with asking for a growth plan.
I am just telling you that you are wasting you time asking and instead it would be better if you use that time to help you team to prepare a workable growth plan to bring to the public before/when next they seek to become the government.
DLP had growth plans, stabilization plans, adjustments to all their plans.
DLP borrowed to prop up FX ( CS loan)
DLP borrowed for infrastructure (roads, Andrews super factory etc).
DLP printed loads of money.
DLP taxed the people.
What did we get?
Crime start to rise sharply (it didn’t start rising after may 2018)
No bus, no garbage truck, cartroads for roads, no repaying of income tax returns, sick buildings, sewage in the streets (nutshell – no maintenance of anything beside the MP pockets)
How much growth? -0.7%
@john2
That is the reason they were huffed 30-0? We need to move on, the BLP is in the chair. Get on with it!
For the record: I have known Dr. McClean from high school back in the 60s.
I give support when and where I think it’s necessary. I’m offended by political party robots.
On occasion I have given support to:
The efforts by MP Forde with his youth initiatives;
The promise to eliminate the eleven plus and attempt some form educational reform;
Less than seventy two hours ago, I distanced myself from those who attacked the PM for going to the Bahamas.
Knowing Ian Edghill from the tremendous promise he showed in the NDP, I expect him to try his best with the Transport Board;
Trevor Prescod and I go way back into the Black Power movement. I have no doubt that he is genuinely interested in the working class.
However as in all things one has to be balanced.
My major thesis remains: Whatever good the Duopoly has done must be complimented. For example the Freehold Tenantry Act. Whatever bad they have done must be exposed. For example the nefarious public order Act of 1974.
I therefore will continue to present that in my philosophical view the two parties are one and jointly responsible for the good and the bad.
In conclusion wherever the country is now is a direct result of where it has been taken. Three trips to the IMF bear out this reality.
What is difficult for the apologists to accept is the fact that Barbados is more than eleven or twelve years old.
We heard for the last thirty years about restructuring and diversifying the economy. Yet we have ended up with one viable ministry. We heard about old mains and water leakages for twenty five years and we still have them. We heard about garbage disposal since the 80s and Greenland and Mount Stinkeroo. We still have garbage all over the place. We heard about modernizing public transportation for thirty years and we still have mass disruption.
Any reasonable person will be forced to conclude that the collective Duopoly must be blamed.
The Duopoly Rules
The critical thought of asking for a growth plan for the economy must now be laid at the feet of Verla Depezia
It seems that present govt now have been given an official past by the blp yard birds of not having to answer the relevant questions on Transparency or a needed growth plan
Those who now are quick to place an * on past govt performance must also be prepared for the crticisms levelled at this govt
No country with a small and aged population and minimum wage can forever endured harsh and unrealistics policies hatched and left to be delivered in a one nest economic basket
In due time all the eggs would be come addled
Oh. David nothing new about the articles written about past govt
Barbados has embraked on a new govt that is where the rubber hits the road and for all its worth this govt have done nothing to bring any form of economic relief for the people
So what good is having high reserves on borrowed money when these reserves would translate into more taxes and economic burden for the people
More reason why govt should by all means necessary commit itself to a growth plan to create a healthy economy
@ Enuff
I say it again. I am no economist, financial expert, independent financial adviser (it is a criminal offence to call yourself an independent financial adviser in the UK is not regulated; that means a tax, pensions, investment, mortgage, or savings adviser), not a senior or junior editor, journalist, not a reporter. I am a pensioner.
My education started at Belmont and finished at St Giles. Nor do I think I am the cleverest person on the blog. I am so dumb I cannot even ask a question. I come here to learn from the chairman and his fan club..
Well said Hal
The role of these blp acolytes is to brow beat and wear down those who dare crticize govt.
They cannot see that BERT is a onsided plan with a huge appetite for its own economic survival and to get most of the economic pie for themselves while the people pay through their a.ss holes
MARI
“So what good is having high reserves on borrowed money when these reserves would translate into more taxes and economic burden for the people”
We had borrowed money and printed under ur DLP government which led to the erosion of the reserves – which lead to the need to borrow to prop up the reserves and more taxes and economic burden on the people
You can come with as many growth plans as you want to, the economy aint going to grow until confidence return (investment and consumer) and that will NEVER happen again in Barbados until government finances are taken care of.
Doubt me? Ask Chris!
Dullard & David
This issue of the size of the cabinet detracts from more important ones.
We suggest that the PM has made a good explanation of her thinking and that an insufficient length of time has passed to measure whether her judgement was right or not.
We would guess that the difference in management costs would not be two million dollars a month. Given what the PM is seeking to achieve, it may well be a worthwhile effort.
Like the Bajans say, this trite argument may be like trying to pick peas from shiiiiiiiite!
@Pachamama
The people not buying the PM’s explanation because they are not seeing the commensurate performance.
Again
Mia aint got no growth plan so in approximately 3.5 yrs the electorate will be BERT-tired. Get your growth plan ready, get you redemption next election and full your belly with laugh at Mia.
Everything working perfect for you.
my last comment
The hubris is stifling. “Hal, who was born in the Ivy, St Michael, won a scholarship to attend Combermere School and left in 1963. He then went on to study at Middlesex Polytechnic (now university), and undertook various undergraduate and post-graduate studies at Cardiff, Thames Valley and Bristol Universities. Hal also done a number of course at the London Business School.”🤣🤣 I am done!
@ William
It is very difficult to have a discussion in a culture where views are seen as binary – either one or the other, for or against. Thinking like this means that nuances, differences of emphasis, alternative paradigms, etc, are ignored.
In such a discursive culture interpretation of sociality becomes meaningless, all we are doing is shouting. Fabrication, a bogus reality, becomes a key in such nonsense view of the world and if not challenged you can find yourself constantly denying such untruths. The problem is, if you do not the gossip, rumour, fabrications become a version of ‘truth’.
But lots of Barbadians ( and thus lots on BU) are comfortable with that farcical consensus. When last have you seen any new knowledge or ideas on BU or in the papers? On the economy they constantly go back to the same people who say the same things day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.
How you present conventional economic concepts and be challenged by people who have NEVER READ AN ECONOMICS BOOK? To do so means you run the risk of people associating you with those conventional views (one idiot calls me a Marxist even thought I constantly deny it; another brain dead fool calls me a Keynesian. I think he can just about spell the man’s name).
They never seem to reach beyond the narrow confines of Barbados for ideas, or even Cave Hill, something made easy by the internet. Why can’t our dynamic editors email Paul Krugman and ask him to write for them; or any other leading economist from across the world?
At least we will get globally recognised people to tell us what they think about foreign reserves, the printing of money, austerity, and the other economic jargon we elevate to the peak of economic thinking.
Some of us are lucky in that we have been exposed to other ideas and forms of thinking – Plato’s Allegory again. Long may it last.
@ Enuff
You are determined to build me up in to something I am not. You missed out on the letters behind my name, including my PhD in rocket science and an -ology. In reality, I have one GCE, in buffoonery.
Seriously, we must stop asking for the source of any idea, who it came from, before we engage it. Deal with the ideas, not bogus qualifications. Or is this part of the Bajan Condition. The source determines the relevance of the idea.
@ Hal
All I can say is that one needs to keep a sense of humor. Many of them know nothing about the inner workings of the Duopoly.
I wish them well. Rest assured fifty or less years the masses will be asked the most sinister question I have ever heard(Sandiford) : How did we get back here ? I have asked back from where.
The Duopoly can even convinced them that we left and went on some trip when in fact we never left.
Political magic reigns.
Keep quiet but send the barrels and a few pounds or US dollars.
Most of all don’t lose your sense of humor and remember you just come from the Ivy, my Brother.
The Duopoly Rules
“The role of these blp acolytes is to brow beat and wear down those who dare crticize govt.”
Hmmmm…….
This role is certainly not UNFAMILIAR to you. After all, as a DLP acolyte, you have 10 years, 4 months EXPERIENCE “brow beating and wearing down those who dared criticized” the former DLP administration.
John2
You can come with as many growth plans as you want to, the economy aint going to grow until confidence return (investment and consumer) and that will NEVER happen again in Barbados
Your comments are in total contrast to what this govt said
Artax is that all u have to contribute
How about mouthing a sustainable growth plan for the country
Never mind my utterances
Small minds discuss people. Especially anonymous people.
Here we go again.
Yes, that’s all I have to contribute.
Why ask me about “mouthing a sustainable growth plan for the country,” when you can present YOUR ideas on such a plan, rather than asking others to produce one?
MARIPOSA
“John2
You can come with as many growth plans as you want to, the economy aint going to grow until confidence return (investment and consumer) and that will NEVER happen again in Barbados
Your comments are in total contrast to what this govt said”
WHAT I SAID
You can come with as many growth plans as you want to, the economy aint going to grow until confidence return (investment and consumer) and that will NEVER happen again in Barbados “until government finances are taken care of.”
Doubt me? Ask Chris!
STOP BEING DISINGENIOUS – quote the whole of what I said and not what you want to change to meaning for you political reason.
yuh stoopin real low now! You need help!
Oh David shut up u have become the master of distractions
Go talk abour Trump where u are most comfortable
Some of you would like the blogmaster to shut up. Live in Rh hope.
Have you purchased those windows yet?
A specie of political animal like you serve to inspire/motivate the blogmaster …LOL.
If you know “You can come with as many growth plans as you want to, the economy aint going to grow until confidence return (investment and consumer) and that will NEVER happen again in Barbados”…………
……… why ask people “about mouthing a sustainable growth plan for the country?”
What I can agree with is that, with a history of 24 consecutive credit rating downgrades and the current debt restructuring program……..restoring confidence in the economy is something that would definitely take some time.
Now look at this the mention of govt having a growth plan rains down hell fire and brings the blp yard birds out
However i reiterate that BERT cannot sustain this. country socially or economically
Their is sufficient negative financial fallout in the barbados household as evidence
I suggest blp yardfowls supporters acolytes take your battles to a govr whose policies have disadvantage many and asked for answers
DISHONEST MARI
I agreeing with you.
But I suggesting to you is to use the lack of a growth plan and its fallout to prepare your DLP to take over the next government. Isnt that what you want? This will allow you to swallow the 30-0 easier. Make sure with you come with a real growth plan and not one that has to be adjusted every 6 months and you gone clear next election.
It is very difficult to have a discussion in a culture where views are seen as binary – either one or the other, for or against. (Quote)
There no one on here whose views are more binary than Mariposa. She argues for the DLP and against the BLP. She always assume that anyone who questions or disagrees with her opinions is a BLP supporter. They are for the BLP and against the DLP. For her it’s one or the other. She comes here with gossip, rumours and fabrications as her version of the truth.
Yet he ignores all that he says to give her his customary “Spot on” and “you are correct” to some of the nonsense she posts.
This man is an enigma.
Ronert G.
“This man is an enigma.”
I dont know why you find that to be so. I find the he more need an enema (full of IT)
ROBERT.
I MEANT FULL OF HIMSELF.
Shoots that mean the samething lol
Robert Goren
Yuh see ! the blp had a plan during the last ten years yes ten years to talk about dwindling reserves
Now govt has the reserves all top off albeit by borrowed money Mariposa ask of the blp supporters what are govt plans to create growth a plan which would keep the reserves in check
Create jobs for the growning unemployed which has reached a staggering number of20% amongst youth whike taking some of the heavy lifting off the barbadian household who struggles to pay personnel debt and fight off the growing pangs of high inflation
Robert can u answer those simple questions
Oh by the way you state that i am a fabricator of untruths
Truth be known pray tell in what way
Also you should be mindful that my name has been associated with a party and members
The surprising part of that fabricated untruth is that mariposa have never been to George St and outside social media interaction i have never met any of the members or people affiliated to the party
Most of my comments are a
reflection of what i belive
A/C supported Sinckler’s US$245M loan from Credit Suisse at 8.75% interest, subject to credit downgrades, to prop up our FOREX. The reserves were then at US$578M. Mariposa, a/c with a different wig, now criticises the current government for borrowing US$290M at 1% from the IMF to boost reserves. The reserves were at US$220M in June 2018 when the Bdos government sought this loan from the IMF. Mariposa is the former FTAdviser senior editor’s biggest idol on BU and, according to him, makes good points.🤣🤣
@Enuff
Whoever you are, plse stop claiming things for me I never claim for myself. I have never been a senior editor on FTAdviser nor a member of staff on the title. Your Googling is getting out of control.
Oh speaking of wigs hair the PM plans to place fines on unkempt premises
Does that include her hair which most of the time needs looks in much need of grooming
Enuff ok you know so much about my thoughts and what i endorse
Answer this million dollar question
Where in the hell is govt going to find money to repay the IMF loan
I have now asked this question several ways and all i get are stories about a/c good grief
Here is another interesting comment out of Mia mouth after months of stating barbados is broke she has a plan of matching funds equitable to money given by barbadians for the Bahamian recovery effort bearing in mind she has asked barbadians to deliver a handsome total of 500hundred thousand it baffles the mind as to how Mia will acquire the matching funds
Mia common sense has been replaced by a bloated ego mark my word
Skinner as i told you before you can pull the wool over others but not me. This is your modus operandi you start by attacking most things this government does and then to appear to be balance throw in a littie jab at the Dems.I see you as a Dem clear as day despite your denials if that amuses you good for you as i will continue to call you out.I never claim to run anytbing however so called experts who went missing 2008_2018 like Austin,Piece,and youself now got all the answers but i must have missed it which country did you sucessfully run again? I beleive someone stated you received about 50 votes years ago with the NDP.
Hal Austin
Ohhhh? My apologies. Financial Times Group? Anyhooo, that wasn’t the crux of my comment, but as usual yuh looking for an escape route. #Houdini.
Mariposa
Well 1% of $290M is $2.9M, 8.75% of $245M is $21.4M. You shudda ask Sinckler the same question, then we may not be now borrowing from the IMF!! Too sweet this BU. 🤣🤣🤣
Enuff you only see 1% what happened to all the unemployed and pensioners savings and retirees checks and increase in bus fares and school meals and on and on
Those not included as an extension of the 1%
Oh those are expected collateral damage and is meaningless
I can bet that the amount of damage done to the barbadian household in return for 1% adds up to more than Sinckler 21.4 milion in interest
Who wunna trying to fool
Steupse
Go figure
@ Lorenzo
“Both parties have been given adequate time to solve problems in: housing, health services; public transportation; education, public service and judiciary reform, land reform, rural development, agriculture and all other areas of economic activity. It is now clear that outside of very successful party propaganda and window dressing, they have been failing and are now clearly out of ideas. Their daily criticisms of each other are classical examples of the pot calling the kettle black!”
William Skinner January 9th 2018 (BU)
Robert can u answer those simple questions (Quote)
@Mariposa
Why are you posing those questions to me and why should I answer them?
Don’t you think it would be better if you ask any BLP politician or Verla Depieza to explain.
@ac
Since nobody wishes to answer u, I will. There is a new boss in town, called the IMF. They have dictated, after at least 13 consecutive years of deficits, the country will now spend less than they collect. It is called a Surplus. So taxpayers will foot the bill. The surplus will go to paying off debt
So now tell the blog, of the lasting benefits of the billions spent on the social economy?
Where do u get your unemployment numbers from? Or those for pangs of high inflation?
Ahhh, you “feel so”? No wonder u like Trump so much, u behave just like him.
@Mariposa. Paying back the IMF loan does not come from the central government budget. It is the central bank, who is the custodian of those funds, responsibility to service the loan. This might seem trivial or nuance, but it is an important distinction. The IMF RARELY lends central governments money directly for buget support or investment.
To ensure that the money deposited at the central bank is not squandered, the IMF set targets, monitored said targets, and then released additional funds based on targets being achieved (otherwise phrased as “passing the test”). This kind of tight control and monitoring, allowed the IMF to have a miniscule default rate. Only Zimbabwe, I can recalled, who have in the past, outrightly defaulted on their IMF obligation without a care.
Create jobs for the growning unemployed which has reached a staggering number of20% amongst youth whike taking some of the heavy lifting off the barbadian household who struggles to pay personnel debt and fight off the growing pangs of high inflation (Quote)
@Mariposa
You should answer this question. From where did you get those unemployment figures?
Or is it an example of the gossip, rumour, fabrications that become a version of ‘truth?’
You should know a lot about unkempt hair. I heard about your weave and eventually saw it too. It definitely needs grooming. You would incur a hefty fine if it was unkempt premises.
@NO
Yes all can see that the taxpayers have been called upon since May24th to service the the IMF debt along with other govt debt
However a question which no one has answered by like u has avoided is how and when will govt initiated a growth plan sufficient and enough to help service the debt.
This question i have asked mutiple times and no one has answered
Robert Goren
Since u have declared that i fabricated the unemployment numbers maybe u can bring to the BU table the correct numbers given by govt
Also while u diligently search for the truth also find the numbers for inflation which is out of control
Btw i can attest to the fact that u have never seen me
Just another bold faced lie u told
The telethon collect 440thousand dollars and provided a check as proof to the public
Mia says she would match those numbers
I hope she stands by those words and provide a govt check legal tender as proof for the barbadian public eyes to gazed upon
@ Mariposa
You are a remarkable person; you seem to bring out the nasty, vicious, anger of the middle aged and elderly Bajan men on this blog all because you oppose the present government and favour the DLP.
If people have a difference of politics with you why can’t they be tolerant and just ignore you. Of course, that would be too easy and simple, too civilised; they want blood, their pound of flesh; they want to crucify you.
It is the Bajan Condition – Little Islanders who are struggling to crawl up the proverbial barrel, to ignore you or meet a compromise will be too simple. Vengeance is ours, says the Bajan keyboard warrior.
The chairman in particular, with his semi-literacy, seems angered by anything you say, even if it is that the sun is shining; another bogus idiot, who himself comes on the blog using three identifiable nom-de-plumes, criticises you for your various angles. Other engaged in what they think is a factual debunking of your claims. How sad.
I also get some licks for saying some of your statements are powerful; don’t let them bully you, stand up and be strong. If it is not you, me or @William, they will find others to bully. Confront them, laugh in their faces and if they push you, push them back.
Hal i can punch above my weight
Most of time i ignore the so called intellectual as for David he is blue mad because i dare asked questions which he refuses to make of interest in any of his articles
He is content on drinking the koolaid
Btw the murder rate continues to increase and David mout is sileny
Dead bodies are being found in houses and along the sea shore and in shallow graves and govt has not released causes of death
@Mariposa
I see that you don’t know the difference between making a declaration and ASKING a question.
How can you say I told a bold faced lie, when I simply asked you if the unemployment figures are example of the gossip, rumour, fabrications that become a version of ‘truth?’
I don’t have to bring no correct figures. You have a percentage and the onus is on you to defend it.
Robert Goren
You challenged the numbers
Didnt you?
“ During the Owen Arthur regime, we borrowed widely and supplemented our foreign exchange coffers , so that our reserves were high. Over the next ten years after the Arthur regime, we printed money like mad-over $50 million per month, ( as Government collections were below income).”
Harry Russell Wild Coot, Daily Nation Monday, September 9, 2019.
Perhaps the above columnist is a bullshitter from the Ivy; he may have run for the NDP and lost his deposit; he could be a Bajan living overseas who has no right to comment on anything happening in his country.
The author clearly stated that the decadent Duopoly is responsible for our economic ruin.
They borrowed “ widely” from overseas and they printed like “crazy.” However we objectively look at it the economy suffered from poor management.
The same author concludes what clear thinkers have stated on BU:
“ Yet! We have no alternative but to press on with Bertie, our only succor(maybe sucker) in time of need. They examine us with a fine-tooth comb.
If we make a false move, according to Lord Kitchener, the IMF will “Squeeze we throat like a vice.”
And that my apologist cool aid drinking friends from George and Roebuck Streets , is where we are today. The Duopoly cannot be defended. The country has been on borrowed time and borrowed money for decades. Whether we borrowed it or printed it we were spending what we did not earn.It is shameful that those who have sat in Parliament for donkey years and watch this economic madness grow will now pretend that they were not at the scene of the crime and their hands are clean.
May the Democratic Labour Party and the Barbados Labour Party burn in the political hell where they belong.
The Duopoly Rules.
@ William
Burn in a political hell – that is nasty. They should be sentenced to live in the Ivy.
Some of these people are not only enigma, they are either old buffoons or forgetful in their old age.
They come here giving Mariposa advice that they should have considered for themselves.
Take David BU for example. Whatever he writes seems to bring the nasty, vicious, anger of certain elderly Bajan men too. Being the hypocrites they are, they constantly ask him if he learnt English, call him silly man, a semi-literate buffoon, and other pejorative names. If they do not agree with the blogmaster, why can’t they be tolerant of him or ignore him and others with whom they do not agree also? Why do they want their blood and to crucify them? They also engage in what they think is a factual debunking of other contributors claims too. To them it’s all good.
They brag about who top lawyer, politician or businessman they talked to, or the apartments they rented out, or what course they helped developed, or which bookstore they owned.
Is this not part of the Barbados Condition too, or does the Barbados Condition apply only to Bajans living in Barbados?
Here they are doing on a daily basis what they are criticising others of doing. Why can’t they compromise or ignore too?
I drew the wrath of a certain fan club, but must repeat that the real Bajan Condition is when these dirt poor people get an opportunity to live overseas, they marry white men or women and they feel they have arrived. After living in the big city, we in the Caribbean are now called struggling little islanders.
It reminds me of the house Negro syndrome. The big city is the plantation house where they live among the white people they adore.
Barbados is seen as the plantation and Barbadians are the field slaves or struggling islanders. Everything we say is rubbish. They believe quoting from books written in the 1940s or regurgitating the ideas of others is not learning by rote, it is a sign of their superior intellect.
They have the right to crucify and criticise us, but if we do it to them, we are keyboard warriors. They can’t tolerate us. You could feel the hate and contempt in their comments.
@Mariposa
I want you to tell me how is ASKING you a simple question CHALLENGING your numbers?
Okay, let me put the question another way.
What is the source of your unemployment figures or are they your fabrication of the truth?
I stand in agreement with William analysis
Hiwever where the govts ought to go is up to the electorate
It seems no one in present govt has learned by past mistakes
The question referencing how we get here would continue to be ask if govts does not come to an honest realisation that borrowing to pay debt is not a sustainable plan unless having an economic growth path to rely on
The next five years would have bajans becoming slaves to the IMF with govt stating there is more work to be done which therfore should give
more reason for the govt to do the job of managing the economy activating plans which would take some of the economic pressure of the barbadian household
DISHONEST LYING MARIPOSA
Do you remember in the 90s Sandy had his own Bert/IMF loan and conditions?
Do you remember the public sector wages cut?
Do you remember Owen taken over and having to finish off Sandy’s IMF policies?
Do you remember that after we came out from being slaves to the IMF that we got back our pay cut?
Do you remember the building boom that came after the IMF?
I tell you many times already ( as a labelled BLP yardfowl) Mia aint have no growth plan. So stop lying that no BLP yardfowl aint answer you question.
With all the damage/ no growth under ….u know who… stabilization comes first – then you will get low growth…..then you will get back ur lost wages….then ” wha muh nuh”
So isnt govt to instill confidence into the economy by having a plan of action which will create such an enviroment of creating growth
For all the noise making about govt not creating growth i remember very well the blp when in opposition created plenty noise on any initiative which would have created jobs and pay debt
Now this present govt does not have any kind of plan except to go like beggars to the IMF
“So isnt govt to instill confidence into the economy by having a plan of action which will create such an enviroment of creating growth”
You can come with as many growth plans as you want to, the economy aint going to grow until confidence return (investment and consumer) and that will NEVER happen again in Barbados “until government finances are taken care of.”
Doubt me? Ask Chris!
Your answer is a copt out
one built on taking the hinges off the door and letting the door dry rot with a hope in the future some good fortune would becoming to buy a new door
The last few posts – – accidentally – – tease important questions.
What is the true unemployment rate in Barbados?
Where can reliable, timely and unfiltered statistics (for anything) be obtained?
Is the Barbados Statistical Service fit for purpose?
@ac
Now you will appreciate how your similar failure to respond to the ‘lasting positive effects of massive deficits on the social economy’ is viewed. If spending, and in 13 & 14, a Billion more than was collected, could not generate growth, why has growth become your benchmark? Because unlike the ‘social economy’ it CAN be measured.
We spend ourselves into the abyss, and now expect a miracle. There will be no growth until at least 2021.
@Northern Observer
You have that commentbite saved?
FACTS: The average quarterly unemployment rate for the period 2008-2018 was 10.6%. The lowest being 7.6% in 2008 just after the BLP got voted out and the highest 13.2% in 2014. The last CB report recorded a rate of 10.1%.
N O
Under the DLP we did NOT spend into an abyss or anything else. When you spend you get something in return. what did we get?
We printed and borrowed ourselves into an abyss is more correct.
DISHONEST LYING MARIPOSA
I already tell you there is no growth plan. You can call it cop out or whatever you want.
We all know that you don’t really have no desire to see a growth plan beside to find some other reason in it to criticize the present government.
@ David
Pay little attention to the unemployment numbers as they also include partial employment as full employment.
If you were working 40 hours and were now only working a 3 day week, the system views you the same way as when you were working a full week.
As a result when over the past few years most construction workers were working a 3 day week, or week on week off, there was no difference to the unemployment numbers even though there was serious under employment.
Stick to the economic activity numbers as a true reflection of the economy as a result.
Please note i said youth u employment
With so many youth unemployed in barbados the unemployment rate cannot be 10%
Who u trying to fool
Plus add the numbers of retrenched workers
Unless a majority of those who were looking have simply gave up then the final head count would show a smaller amount
John u could stop braying a govt needs a plan of action to create growth
@ Mariposa
Historically youth (16-25) unemployment is usually higher than the average unemployment rate. At the height of the boom in London (Up to 2008) , the black youth unemployment rate was about 45 per cent; I believe that would be about the rate for youth unemployment n Barbados. Official figures must be challenged.
https://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/241580/bert-bites
“BERT’s squeeze is hurting the already ailing garment manufacturing sector and threatening the few hundred jobs still remaining in an unexpected way.”
The Law of unintended consequences?
DISHONEST LYING MARIPOSA
I you DLP didn’t have any growth plan for ten years because at the end of the day we ended up with negative/ no growth.
no growth plan = no growth
John A
Isn’t it normal practice to count part time and self employed as employed?
We should not quibble about unemployment numbers like John A stated. In an austerity climate there will be suffering, there will be stress on living. We have to protect the vulnerable as we navigate this period which is why the pension issue must be resolved post haste.
@ John 2
It is in many places but it gives a very bent view of how well an economy is doing. What would be good is if we tracked fully employed as being 40 hours a week.
Because we track it this way you will notice even though our unemployment numbers in the last say 5 years were not high, our economy was growthless. From memory I Think once you are making contributions here you count as employed, even if it was 5 days and is now only 2.
I don’t think you will see it changed as it will make bad politics. I also ignore tourist arrival figures and focus solely on spend figures for the same reason.
@ John A
Correct. Basically the definition of ’employed’ is pliable and many times violates common sense.
In an austerity climate there will be suffering … We have to protect the vulnerable as we navigate this period which is why the pension issue must be resolved post haste.
At the end of any round of austerity there is always more suffering than at the beginning.
There are always more vulnerable at the end than at the beginning.
In the neo-liberal playbook pensions tend to get reduced or eliminated.
Why do you think that Barbados is special in this regard?
Do you remember the phrase voluntary idle?
https://barbadostoday.bb/2013/03/28/the-voluntary-idle/
10% unemployment rate what a bowl of hogwash
When will this govt learn to tell the truth
Also on last night telethon it makes to note that those that make big contributions are in private business need i say more
The same social partners are comprised of those business persons, who imported ready made school uniforms that have threatened jobs in the industry. These are the same people that have held successive governments to ransom and who don’t pay in VAT.
@William
Local companies will import if it will save money. If you discuss this matter with local companies for years now it has become cheaper to import from Trinidad and China.
@ Baje September 7, 2019 7:10 PM
Baje appears here as a typical Barbadian: on the one hand he brags about exams from some universities and his scholarships from the distant past, on the other hand he reveals a remarkable naivety towards economic contexts.
Baje should tell us how entrepreneurs in Barbados should pay higher wages when productivity stagnates or, in the case of Barbados, has even fallen significantly since 2008. Baja lives in his dream world, where the literacy level of a population determines their expectations.
Of course he will now rage against me like many other whipped-up nationalists, instead of thanking me politely.
@ Dullard,
Pensions are delayed payment; it has already been earned. By reducing pensions the state is mugging annuitants.