Plan B: IMF

IF?MEASURES outlined last  week in the 2013-14 national Budget fail to revive the economy, Barbados will have to seek International Monetary  Fund (IMF) assistance.
This was among opinions  given at a panel discussion  last evening involving some  of the island’s leading economic analysts, commentators, businessmen and politicians.
Some felt Government was unclear on how it will cut expenditure, that projects would take too long to boost economic recovery, and that there was  a loss of credibility.
President of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Lalu Vaswani, said: “There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that while the revenue measures announced would be implemented immediately, the expenditure reduction measures, given as vaguely as  they have been in most cases, illustrate a major policy weakness.”
Journalist Pat Hoyos said: “Expenditure reduction,  obviously for political reasons,  has been kicked down the road, another few months maybe,  another year maybe.” (GA)