ECONOMIC MADNESS!
That’s how economics Professor Michael Howard has described Government’s proposed $600 million economic stimulus, warning that the country simply cannot afford it.
And he has suggested that given the “weakness of our productive sectors, our large fiscal deficit, our sluggish tax receipts and our downgrade to junk status”, a policy of austerity and expenditure reduction was the better option.
“The proposal by the DLP Government of a stimulus package of $600 million for the Barbadian economy is economic madness. This is the same Government that opposed a $90 million stimulus package proposed by the BLP Opposition before the elections,” Howard told the WEEKEND NATION.
“Government is running a huge fiscal deficit and has already been downgraded by two rating agencies. The productive sectors in Barbados are not doing any better than they were before the elections. Fiscal revenues are sluggish and cannot support a $600 million in Government expenditures.”
