A follow through to the Policy Performance and Outlook (Part 1) received/posted by Barbados Underground last week. To be honest topics coming from the political opposition and others critical of government policy on the campaign trial so far have not clearly articulated economic alternatives to give hope to an electorate definitely suffering from all types of fatigue, economic, social and the
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General Election will be held in Barbados 19 January 2022. One expects a key issue of the campaign will be economic plans to move Barbados forward and the Mottley led government will be asked to defend its management of the economy since 2018 notwithstanding it must have been a difficult undertaking based on what the state of the economy was
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The blogmaster read Wild Coot’s (Harry Russell) weekly column with interest and came away with a couple takeaways which maybe more poignant than the former banker touched on. We live in a capitalist driven society which is ‘defined’ by churning economic activity with the aim to make profit for the capitalists. We can theorize to rival the Adam Smiths and
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The blogmaster received a report that some banks in Barbados have forced customers to submit requests for international wire transfers online and as a consequence Barbados importers are being frustrated by delays in processing. The reason for the delays is that in the case of one bank the blogmaster was able to confirm processing of the wire transfers is being
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Submitted by Paula Sealy A two-week circuit-breaker lockdown could be introduced in England after Christmas to combat the rise of the Omicron coronavirus variant. Following the advice of scientific advisers, The Times has reported, government officials had prepared draft regulations that would reintroduce restrictions similar to those in step two of that country’s roadmap out of lockdown last spring. The
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Barbados governments of recent have implemented a policy to pass on fluctuations (calculation unknown to the public) in the price fuel to the consumer. Barbados is a net importer of goods and as a consequence when world market price of oil increases, it has an inevitable result on the cost of living. It is a stretch to expect government during
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The following was sent to Barbados Underground’s mailbox to defend government’s decision not to deliver a Financial Statement and Budgetary proposals commonly referred to as a ‘budget’ – Blogmaster I am bewildered by the call made by some for the presentation of a “budget” in the House of Assembly, as a matter of urgency. The reasons given strike me as
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Attached are updated charts for week ending 10th December. Vaccinations are slowly increasing; Daily cases are slowly decreasing and Daily test positivity is gradually declining although still some distance from the sub 5% level. There has been no movements in the charts suggestive of changes in disease incidence attributable to last weeks Republican celebrations. Lyall Small
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Amid the din of Covid 19 noise muted calls from the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and the United Progressive Party (UPP) for the government to deliver a ‘budget’ have gone largely unnoticed by the public. The blogmaster agrees given the comatose state of the local economy the call is justified. It is no secret the BLP inherited a sick economy
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The Governor of the Central Bank reported two consecutive quarters of growth although it must be stated Barbados economy performed below pre COVID 19 GDP levels – 3.2% to be exact. There was an increase in activity in the tourism sector even as COVID 19 continues to run rampant in the country. The thousands of workers serving the hospitality industry
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The blogmaster read an article recently published by Harvard Business Review (HBR) – see link below and thought it a constructive exercise to share a few observations with the BU family. The main idea of the paper is to need to prioritize the importance of companies of engineering businesses to be resilient. The challenge for many is that the majority
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In the business world there is the familiar quote “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. It simple terms it does not matter the policy implemented, it is the prevailing culture that will determine the degree of success. The headline in today’s Sunday Sun Bookings Take a Hit was predicted in this space months ago. In our tourism source markets of UK,
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The advancement in technology has given rise to Fintech companies. These companies are utilising technology to innovate in order to deliver financial services once the preserve of traditional operators. Although an underdeveloped sector in Barbados we have a company or two leading the way. In a previous blog – Excellent News BUT …! Barbados Underground highlighted the success of GIFTS and
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The COVID 19 virus is wrecking havoc on the Barbados landscape based on the number of infections experienced in recent days. Our worse fears are being realised with 92 reported infections listed in the recent dashboard. During a press conference yesterday authorities advised current trajectory if left unchecked could see 500 cases of Covid 19 infections daily starting as early
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This week government approved a $50 million boost to the Unemployment Fund, the first tranche of a $143 million recapitalization of the NIS Unemployment Fund planned over 3 years. Government’s decision comes as no surprise in the wake of over 52 thousand claims filed in 2020 as a result of the displacement of workers caused by the pandemic. We must
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A report in the local press yesterday piqued the curiosity. It detailed former Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler will be working with the region, including Barbados “with the reform of the international debt architecture and issues surrounding vulnerability of small states”. His involvement is as a result of an engagement with former employer Caribbean Policy Development Centre, where he was
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Let’s see which tranches were defaulted and exactly the amount. And what value the “books” placed on the asset(s). All neatly hidden, because we can never see what those entities who received the “loans” did with that money, other than defaulting on repayment. Everybody got bailed out except the local taxpayer. NorthernObserver (call for transparency by BU commenter in the
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Governor Cleviston Haynes delivers the Central Bank of Barbados’ review of Barbados’ economic performance in the first half of 2021 and takes questions from the media and the live online audience. Central Bank of Barbados
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