The following is a short discussion with President of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) Dr. Linda Williams (Epidemiologist). Dr. Natasha Sobers ( Epidemiologist) from the UWI, Cave Hill and Senior Economic Advisor to the government Dr. Kevin Greenidge – Head of the CBC TV 8 Sanka Price lead the discussion supported by Head of News at Voice of Barbados Stetson Babb.
Discussion re COVID 19 and the Economy
The following is a short discussion with President of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) Dr. Linda Williams (Epidemiologist). Dr. Natasha Sobers ( Epidemiologist) from the UWI, Cave Hill and Senior Economic Advisor to the government Dr. Kevin Greenidge – Head of the CBC TV 8 Sanka Price lead the discussion supported by Head…
265 responses to “Discussion re COVID 19 and the Economy”
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Home / Covid-19 / COVID-19 watchdog eyes City shopping mall as potential ‘super-spreader’COVID-19 watchdog eyes City shopping mall as potential ‘super-spreader’ – by Emmanuel Joseph August 6, 2021
The Government’s COVID-19 watchdog has zeroed in on the bustling Swan Street shopping thoroughfare as a potentially explosive spreader of the virus.“We have been seeing a worrying trend developing in Swan Street where you have a number of persons who gather there,” c, head of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit told Barbados TODAY. “Swan Street is one of those areas where a lot of people go shopping…. There are a lot of crowds and so on. We will be looking into that to see what we can do about that.”
He did not elaborate on the likely restrictions to be introduced to the busy street mall.
Chapman said it is not good sense for people to spend their time in a crowded area just liming.
“I know we want to be close to one another and so on, but it is something that we will be looking into and see if we can help minimize the risk in places like that,” he said.
Chapman also revealed that more than a dozen protocol breakers are facing charges in court.
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Bridgetown again!!
Where do the people who test positive live?
Map those locations.
Below 200 feet on the south or west coast … or not?
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8:27
We been there done that already
I Said my piece on tourism already and already disagree with you that the 5 % turn around is not good – we look at it from different angles -
U Will be very busy trying to impress with ur attentuon to detail – after it had been pointes Out
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I got a feeling it won’t be too long before we see both Biden and Harris impeached.
Cuomo will go the same way too unless he resigns.
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Maybe i should have sad – You tried to save face by pretending you hope i was right
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pretending was definately the wrong Word
Long day and was end of night before i closed Down
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Biden and his handlers are setting him up for impeachment.
Might be this month.
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Who would imagine that those fools on the rocks should still be clinging onto a tourism industry decimated by covid-19. Eighteen months have elapsed and these morons are still unable or unwilling to restructure their economy.
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TLSNAugust 7, 2021 4:06 AM
Who would imagine that those fools on the rocks should still be clinging onto a tourism industry decimated by covid-19. Eighteen months have elapsed and these morons are still unable or unwilling to restructure their economy.
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Economic activity in Barbados has always been dictated by outside interests.
You find that the “Offshore Sector” is the major plank of the economy, not Tourism and the Offshore Sector is going through its challenges with its close links to criminal activity.
The brief period post WWII where sugar was king was just that … brief!!
Even that period was a reflection of the extreme shortages of the commodity outside of Barbados.
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The biggest problem we have with our economy is the criminals don’t want to get caught.
They are laying low.
True from before COVID, during COVID and after COVID.
Maybe we need to throw the criminals to the wolves.
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Economic performance ‘positive but tenuous’
By Tony Best Former Governor of Barbados’ Central Bank Winston Cox has referred to the second-quarter report on the country’s economic performance as “positive but tenuous vibes for economic growth” in the country.
Following the report delivered at a recent conference by the current Governor, Cleviston Haynes, he said for him the key “takeaways” from the bank’s recent news conference ranged from the emergence of “green shoots” of possible economic expansion in Barbados and a crucial need for an uptick in the global and national rates of COVID-19 vaccinations to a continuation of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) efforts as a vital socioeconomic safety net for people during tough times caused by the pandemic.
Just as important, Cox said, was the evidence that at last the international financial institutions – the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Inter-American Development Bank – had accepted the fact that “small, vulnerable and open economies” like Barbados needed all the help they could get.
Positive things
“There were some very positive things contained in the Barbados economic outlook which was outlined by the current Central Bank Governor,” Cox told the Sunday Sun. “One was that the IFIs had recognised the very high vulnerability of small states and open economies like Barbados. It was clear the financial institutions had recognised that countries like Barbados were extremely vulnerable and required support.”
“Small open economies, Barbados among them, were dependent on the benign influences in the international economy and they were at even greater peril than the unfavourable impact” of worldwide economic downturns,” he said.
“Small countries suffer sharply if there was a downturn in the global economy and it takes a bit longer for them to reap the benefits of an upturn,” he said.
A second “takeaway” was what the current central banker called the ‘green shoots’ of economic growth appearing in Barbados.
“If the uptick in the international economy does not continue, then those green shoots can easily turn brown and usher in a period” of prolonged economic stagnation, he added. “Yes, we have to nourish the green shoots as best we can by providing the kind of domestic investments which the Governor has identified. They also require the continued upturn in the international economy if they are really to yield results.”
Reduce the expectations
He said that next were the “fiscal difficulty” and the financial adjustments which would allow the Government to reduce the expectations of the country’s primary surplus.
“It is yet another positive sign of evidence of [International Financial Institutions] understanding the economic challenges” confronting countries like Barbados,” he said. “I am getting the feeling that the financial institutions aren’t as resistant to the idea of the vulnerability of small economies as they were 20-30 years ago” when they erroneously asserted that small states were “more nimble” and had more flexibility in their responses to negative international economic conditions.
“I came away from the Governor’s review feeling better about Barbados’ prospects and an important component of my feelings was the sense that the IFIs were beginning to understand the problems” facing Barbados and its Caribbean neighbours and the financial support they need and Barbados was receiving,” Cox contended.
He said Barbados was “coming off a period of declining output but rising fiscal deficits and the financial institutions had demonstrated a high degree of flexibility in their dealings with Barbados.”
“It seems to me that what the economic report suggested was that the room given to Barbados (by the IFIs) to adjust to the circumstances it faced – the freak storm, the damages caused by Hurricane Elsa, the volcanic ash (from St. Vincent) and the first
quarter lockdown triggered by COVID – the room seemed to be there,” argued Cox, who agreed with Haynes that there weren’t any quick fixes to Barbados’ economic problems.
“Economic recovery is a long process that involves improving the welfare and benefits to people. It is a process that is continuous and slow,” he warned. “It is not going to happen overnight.”
No control
Switching to the issue of rising oil prices and their impact on people’s pocketbooks, Cox said that as an oilimporting country, Barbados did not have any control over the rising prices.
As to when Barbadians could reasonably expect tourism’s return to good financial health, he struck a note of caution, saying much would depend on successes in boosting international vaccination levels.
“It is quite possible to achieve it (tourism rebound by 2023) if more and more people in different parts of the world were vaccinated and if we can help stem the tide of the mutations of the coronavirus,” he said. “The international effort to vaccinate people is as important for Barbados as is its own campaign to vaccinate its people. As more people get vaccinated, more of them will travel and tourism growth will return” to Barbados.
He described the prospects for economic growth by 2023 as being both “tenuous and tentative” with a high degree of uncertainty.
“We are not out of the economic woods. We are still in it. We must avoid fiscal deficits becoming a drag on the economy. Clearly, robust growth in international travel may bring benefits to Barbados.”
Turning to the NIS, Cox indicated satisfaction with the way it was functioning as a “safety net” for Bajans, providing pensions, unemployment benefits and a pool of investible funds. “That’s the way it was designed to perform.”
However, what was needed, he insisted, was “continued growth in Barbados’ foreign reserves but they should be a result of earning them but not by borrowing.”
The Central Bank, he said, had done a good job in managing the reserves.Source: Nation
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EX-BWA CHAIR SUING
By Maria Bradshaw
mariabradshaw@nationnews.com
Dr Atlee Brathwaite, the former chairman of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA), is suing Auditor General Leigh Trotman for his report into the BWA which was laid in Parliament last year, and which made several references to Brathwaite’s conduct heading the statutory entity.
In the claim form which was filed in the High Court on July 9, the 86-year-old retiree, who is being represented by attorneys Philip McWatt and Sumaya Desai, is seeking, among other things, monetary damages, an order quashing the report and/or portions of it that set out the findings of the Auditor General in relation to him and his conduct, and a permanent injunction restraining the Auditor General or any governmental body from acting pursuant to the findings contained in the report.
AG aware
When contacted yesterday, Attorney General Dale Marshall told the
Sunday Sun: “I am aware that a claim has been filed by Mr Atlee Brathwaite in the High Court seeking relief in respect of the report of the Auditor General, which was laid in Parliament in 2020.
“The named defendant in the case is the Auditor General himself. I won’t comment on the merits of the claim but will say that the claim will be vigorously defended.”
In the claim form, a copy of which was obtained by this newspaper, Brathwaite is contending that in Chapter 4 of the report, Trotman “made numerous references to the applicant and drew many adverse findings concerning his management of the Barbados Water Authority, which said findings the applicant was never made to understand were likely to be made against him and for which he was never given an opportunity to respond”.
It added that portions of the Auditor General’s report were carried in an edition of the Nation newspaper dated June 5, 2020, and the public perception of Brathwaite was such that it caused immeasurable damage to his reputation.
“The publication of the report has also adversely affected the health of the applicant and his wife and caused him significant distress,” the claim further stated.
Brathwaite is seeking judicial review of the administrative act of the Auditor General “in making adverse findings of” and concerning his conduct for the period when he acted as chairman of BWA, according to the filing, “without informing the applicant of the specific allegations against him or of his proposed findings, and/or inviting him to comment and/or respond to the allegations or proposed findings he purported to make”.
He submitted that by including those adverse findings in his report, Trotman acted in breach of the rules of natural justice in that he failed to advise him of the allegations or proposed findings he was going to make against him in the report; and failed to give him an opportunity to respond to them.
Brathwaite further charged that the Auditor General exercised his discretion “improperly or unreasonably” in failing to advise him of the allegations or proposed findings he purported to make in his report and offer him an opportunity to respond; and that Trotman took into account irrelevant matters in coming to his findings in respect of him.
‘Acted arbitrarily’
“The respondent acted arbitrarily and irrationally or otherwise abused his power in failing to act in accordance with accepted and recognised rules of natural justice in reaching the findings he did with respect to the applicant,” the claim stated.
Sources told the Sunday Sun this was the first time that a citizen has brought a lawsuit against the Auditor General for his annual report. The Auditor General is charged with auditing and reporting on the accounts of the Supreme Court, Senate, House of Assembly and all departments and offices of Government.
The matter is to come up before the High Court in October.Source: Nation
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A big rock thrown at the Auditor general head
Phew what is this world becoming
Who would be NEXT? -
‘We’re not going to lock down our economy,’ White House says
https://www.yahoo.com/news/were-not-going-to-lock-down-our-economy-white-house-says-210223176.html
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