Economy can’t be stable!

Mia Mottley (FP)

By Tony Best | Sat, June 02, 2012 - 12:09 AM

Central Bank Governor Dr Delisle Worrell has come under fire for his claim that the Barbados economy is stable.

The criticism came from Opposition member of Parliament and former Minister of Economic Affairs Mia Mottley, who suggested in New York yesterday that statements about economic stability were delusional and might only end up fooling the nation.

With inflation sky-high, a mountain of public debt to service, and the offshore financial services sector reeling from the departure of large firms in the last two years, Worrell’s claim about the country’s economy was far-fetched and couldn’t be supported by hard facts, Mottley said.

“I am not sure you can have a stable condition with a chronic current account fiscal deficit. I am not sure you can have a stable situation when inflation is 9.4 per cent last year and 9 per cent this year in circumstances where most of your trading partners have an inflation rate that is one-third of what Barbados is posting,” she told an editorial board meeting of the New York Carib News, attended by Caribbean diplomats, community leaders, journalists and supporters of both the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and the ruling Democratic Labour Party.

Read the full story in today's SATURDAY SUN.