Anxious

THE UMBRELLA BODY for local chartered accountants is questioning the effectiveness of Government’s fiscal adjustment strategy and sees a need for “urgent action” beyond financial and monetary policies.

And a recent canvass of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB) members has found “general dissatisfaction” with how the Freundel Stuart administration was managing the economy.

These concerns emerged yesterday when ICAB president Roger Arthur, executive director Reginald Farley, immediate past president David Simpson and vice president Andrew Brathwaite held at Press conference at the group’s Hastings, Christ Church headquarters.

With the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance having identified the need to reduce the fiscal deficit by $174.6 million in the next six months, ICAB officials said this “raises questions about efficaciousness of the fiscal adjustment strategy as well as creates some uncertainty in the short term until Government indicates its preferred option for closing the gap”.

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