by Tony Best

BARBADOS and its Caribbean neighbours, already hurting from high inflation, should not worry too much about importing cost-of-living increases from Trinidad and Tobago.

That reassurance, of sorts, has come from Standard & Poor's, which has just affirmed Trinidad and Tobago's long-term A- foreign credit rating, one of the highest in the developing world.

But with a booming economy and escalating government spending, eight per cent inflation is causing worry on Wall Street in New York.

"Yes, we are concerned about inflation, which is detracting somewhat from the overall bright economic picture," Roberto Sifon Arevalo, an S&P analyst, said. "I really don't think that inflation is going to be exported to Barbados, Grenada, St Vincent and the other countries in the Eastern Caribbean. Indeed, some of the higher prices being paid in Trinidad and Tobago can be traced to some of those places. Food, for instance, is coming from St Vincent, Grenada and areas like that."

Sifon said that Barbados was being hit by inflation due to rising oil prices but the goods and services it imports from Trinidad and Tobago and other areas were unlikely to bring inflation into the country. Inflation is expected to hit about six per cent this year in Barbados.

"I think Barbados and the others already have their own problems, inflation-wise, from the energy situation," he said in an interview from his Wall Street office.