Right on!
Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Senator Darcy Boyce explaining Government’s medium-term policies.
By Barry Alleyne | Fri, July 30, 2010 - 12:00 AM
No stimulus package. No budget.
But according to Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Senator Darcy Boyce, everything is moving in the right direction when it comes to this country’s economy.
During a 61-minute nationally televised Press conference last night, Senator Boyce noted that though no Budget has yet been produced by Prime Minister David Thompson, and though no stimulus package has been brought to the people, what Government had done over the past seven months was actually tantamount to a stimulus.
“What we’ve done is put back money in the people’s pockets. We won’t go to the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and unemployment is still lower than during the tenure of the last administration,” Boyce said.
The minister of state also promised that things would pick up between now and the first quarter of 2011, since a number of capital works projects were set to pick up steam.
Among those projects will be the Four Seasons Hotel, a long touted reverse osmosis plant, main replacements by the Barbados Water Authority (BWA), a leachate programme of the Sanitation Service Authority, and work to alleviate traffic woes around the Warrens, St Michael area.
More money
In addition, Boyce said even more money would be pumped into the country’s tourism industry to maintain arrivals from Britain, increase the improving Canadian market, and delve further across Europe.
“What has been done so far has been reasonable,” Boyce said. “There is a level of confidence that has been shown in the Barbados economy, as shown by the recent $200 million bond issued earlier this week. The decline in the economy definitely seems to be reversing now.”
Boyce said Government had been able to sell a number of shares of the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited and would also continue to place shares of the Barbados National Bank on the market.
The Senator noted that Government had sincerely gone about to protect the vulnerable of Barbados by introducing free bus fares for school children, summer camps, a reverse tax credit for low income workers, and deferred National Insurance Scheme payments.
Boyce said Government would stick to its previously announced medium-term fiscal and development strategy.
“It would be impossible to attempt to reduce the fiscal deficit in a fell swoop. The United States hasn’t done it. The United Kingdom hasn’t done it. Why should we try to do it?” Boyce asked.
Economic growth
Regarding a Budget, Boyce said the Prime Minister would make that decision when he felt it necessary, but in the mean time, the processes put in place would allow the country to maintain the projection of 2-3 per cent growth heading into the next fiscal year.
Boyce added that it was the administration’s medium-term strategy which allowed investors to remain confident the Barbados economy, and keep it stable in the middle of the worst recession seen in recent times.
“Strategies such as this will certainly not have immediate effects. There is money that we have to spend,” said Boyce, pointing to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the West Indies and the Transport Board.
The minister of state noted that one area Government was intent on improving was its collection of payments to statutory corporations like the BWA and the National Housing Corporation.
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I was hoping to hear something new from Senator Boyce about Government’s plans to ease the country out of recession but this was cold soup warmed over.
How very, very disappointing.
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Comment LinkThis overview of the Barbadian economy flies in the face of every assessment made by independent economists and the recent day-to-day experience of Barbadian businesses which has seen many an owner waking up in the middle of the night in cold sweats when they look at their balance sheets and many a worker frightened of losing their jobs. As the economy has gone from bad to worse over the last two years, the Barbadian government has done nothing, standing on the sidelines like an interested spectator with little or nothing to offer. Does Mr. Boyce think that Barbadians are fools? All the sweet talk in the world can’t turn a dunktree into a rosebush.
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Comment LinkMr Boyce, this a country that we are running, not a rum shop (and they run better). When it is budget time, it is budget time. There must be order and common sense. Irrespective of health issues or absenteeism, the business of the day has to be attended to. There is an Acting Prime Minister. So please, if you want the suit to fit, you can’t cut the cloth short.
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Comment LinkThe naysayers are amazed that the country has not collapsed as they hoped and predicted. Most reasonable Barbadians realise that the Government is running and working efficiently to keep the economy on a level keel.
Keep the good work up Mr. Boyce.
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Comment LinkDear Double U:
You must know the good Senator intimately, considering his father was a tailor and his cousin in Chalky Mount runs a rum shop. I only wish the pointedness of your comment made it even one iota less idiotic.
The man is a minister of state. A glorified advisor.
If you want a budget at budget time (by the way, when IS budget time? Is it actually locked in stone? I forget when it was supposed to happen sometime during the past 15 years or so) then ask the ACTING MINISTER OF FINANCE for the budget, not the advisor.
And next time you want tuh cuss yuh cuz, call de man up an’ stop posting anonymously. You know, do things man to man…
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Comment Link@ X: I must be psychic or possess some form of ESP, for I know neither Mr Boyce, his family nor their business. I am also not interested in yardfowlism or attacking for the sake of doing so, I am interested in the progress of this country in which I have worked hard, not hardly worked. I am simply addressing who has been featured in this column and who is well known as the designated financial advisor of our country. If he seems to be biting his tongue, then I am FREE to comment on that. It is beyond me why that rubbed you the wrong way. And did you mention the word anonymous? OK, I know the significance of ‘X’. I therefore understand why you are already wearing your Crop Over mask. Kadooment Day happens to be Monday. At least I know that date if not the Budget’s.
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