Straughn wants focus on public finances

THE EXTENT TO which Government has been able to fix its finances, stimulate economic activity, and maintain a healthy amount of foreign exchange must be made known.

These are among the key issues economist Ryan Straughn thinks Barbadians deserve details on when the Central Bank releases its third quarter economic review today. With the bank having announced its abandonment of the traditioanl news conference for the second consecutive quarter, Governor Dr DeLisle Worrell’s Press release is highly anticipated by some analysts.

Straughn told the DAILY NATION yesterday he hoped the bank would zero in on the state of public finances and Government’s fiscal consolidation programme.

“The focus clearly is on the public finances and whether we have made any more progress in terms of reducing the deficit and then the impact that that would have on the reserves position,” he said.

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