The chairman of Government’s Council of Economic Advisers has a different view from Central Bank Governor Dr Delisle Worrell’s of how the Freundel Stuart administration should close its $400 million deficit gap.
While Dr Worrell suggested on Wednesday that adjustments should be sharp and swift, Sir Frank Alleyne is adamant that Government should take it slow.
“Any economist who’s worth his or her salt would advise the Government that these things have to be phased in. The Government of Barbados is the single largest buyer of goods and services in this economy. If you go and chop out $400 million – one chop like that – you risk imploding the economy unless you have a plan. This thing has to be managed,” he said on VOB’s Down To Brass Tacks yesterday.
“Government must have access to what major foreign exchange projects are in the pipeline in Town and Country Planning. A prudent Government then would say ‘look, this is the cut we’re implementing in this timeframe over the next three months; let us sit down with the fellas in Town and Country Planning, see what foreign exchange projects we can bring up to scratch and make sure they’re ready to go in that time period so that when we withdraw, they come in. That is what proper economic management is about.”