Modest growth

THE INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (IDB) is predicting growth for the Barbados economy but is cautioning that the recovery is going to be “modest” at best.

The Washington-based institution’s economic forecasters said in a just-released report that the economy would grow an average of 1.8 per cent annually for 2016 and 2017. Helped by continued low oil prices which the IDB was convinced would remain below US$55 a barrel, and bumper tourist arrivals coupled with hundreds of millions in planned tourism investment, the slow economic recovery should continue.

The elephant in the room for the Freundel Stuart administration, however, remains the fiscal deficit and the troubling national debt level.

“Improving Barbados’ fiscal position is the greatest challenge. The deficit contributes to rising public debt and greater fiscal effort is required to stabilise it,” the IDB warned. (GE)

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