An economic crisis shouldn’t catch authorities napping in future, thanks to a new warning system.
Minister of Economic Affairs Dr David Estwick made this point Tuesday at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre as he launched the national Economic Early Warning System.
The system, which will eventually be accessible online to the public, is a product of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, with inputs from a number of outside experts, including the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) lecturers Professor Roland Craigwell and Dr Winston Moore.
Estwick said Government would use historical data, as well as the many current streams of information on various elements of the economy, to make predictions about where the economy was heading.
The predictions would also determine the actions Government would take to achieve the desired economic growth, he told a gathering that included some of the island’s top economists.
Estwick said the effectiveness of the system would depend on factors that included the speedy provision of information from both Government agencies and the private sector.
Underscoring the need for Bajans to do things more quickly, he said the timely implementation of legislation or regulations to deal with economic problems and the utilisation of corrective measure were important for the early warning system to be effective. (TY)
