Who would you trust to turn around the economy and usher in prosperity?
Would it be the ruling Democratic Labour Party under Freundel Stuart, with Chris Sinckler as Minister of Finance, or Owen Arthur, a former Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, who now leads the Opposition?
At first glance, the question may appear to be political mischief-making but, realistically, it’s on many people’s minds as Bajans at home and abroad worry about the prospects of tougher economic times in 2012. That’s because most signs point to anaemic economic growth, higher unemployment, escalating inflation and continued uncertainty.
Just as bad, they worry about a lowering of the once stellar Wall Street investment grade credit rating falling to junk bond status.
With a general election expected sometime in the next 12 months, the answer to the question may turn out to be the centrepiece of the political campaigns waged by the Dems and the BLP.
But Barbados isn’t alone when it comes to questions of trust.
United States President Barack Obama is facing it as he gears up to seek re-election to the White House on November 6.
The Republicans, who left the US economy in 2008 in the worst shape since the Great Depression, have the chutzpah to ask the question, accusing Obama and the Democrats of mismanaging the economy and failing to bring it soundly out of the recession.
With consumer confidence growing across America, the jobless rate now at 8.6 per cent, energy prices declining, the stock market showing renewed strength, and with experts saying the economy grew three to four times quicker in November and December than it did in the first half of 2011, Wall Street investors want to know if the recent positive signs are an indication of a new dawn.
The answer is of keen interest to Barbados because of the impact of the United States economy on the island.
Barbadians are bound to look at unemployment which, according to the International Monetary Fund, stood at 12.1 per cent in June, up from 6.7 in 2007, inflation at 10.6 per cent year on year in August, a Government deficit of 5.1 per cent; and the total public debt at 117 per cent of gross domestic product, up from 90 per cent two years ago, and ask if they are better off today than they were in 2009.
Most people would say no, and that’s where who to trust will come in.
Undoubtedly, the DLP is going to argue that they inherited an economic headache from the BLP in 2008. But the trouble is the Government placed almost the entire blame for the current crisis mainly on global economic conditions and not on what it found when it took over. Â
Even so, after four years in office, the public would be justified in asking, what about the Government’s stewardship of the economy in four years?
After all, it was elected, among other things to improve the management of the economy.
