Caricom to talk economic crisis

The Global Economic Crisis and related crises arising will be some of the key items being discussed when the upcoming Heads of Government meeting comes off between July 4 and July 7 in Montego Bay, Jamaica.On Tuesday at a media clinic to highlight current challenges and discuss plans, economic adviser to the Secretary General, Dr Maurice Odle, noted that in 2009, eight out of the 14 CARICOM countries had negative growth, while the International Monetary Fund projected that this year seven of the 14 countries will see “zero or negative growth”.“We have a serious economic crisis still on our hands and we also have a related socio economic crisis,” he said.Odle told participating media in the teleconference and other members of the secretariat, that unemployment was still in the double digits, somewhere between 10 to 15 per cent or maybe more.“The surveys do not take into account those who are still looking for jobs, so it may be possibly more than to ten to 15 per cent,” he said.Odle said although countries like Belize, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago to a lesser extent “maybe out of the crisis” that was mainly because they were not dependent on tourism.The economic adviser lamented the fact that while the Caribbean was dependent on the United States and Europe, there was still a state of joblessness in those two regions.He touched briefly on the call that was made for them to cut back on government expenditure even before the countries had emerged from the economic crisis.“If we are not careful they could experience what is called a double-dip,” he told those gathered.He also highlighted what could turn into a war between China and the United States, with the United States possibly imposing sanctions on China.“The US could impose sanctions and anti-dumping measures on the Chinese because they are not allowing their exchange rates to rise. The Americans want the exchange rates to rise, but the Chinese are reluctant” he said.He noted that could cause a war on protectionism, like back in the 1930s.Odle noted that another crisis being experienced was the fact that the tourism industry was seeing a lot of new players, which was causing the market share to drop and hence the need for retooling.He said one of the things saving face for the Caribbean was the fact that Brazil, Russia, Turkey and other territories were doing well and said to be driving economies.“We have to move away from the dependence on Europe and the US, and do a lot more trading with the rest of the world,” he said. (CT)