Stressing?that “the sky is not falling on Barbados”, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Chris Sinckler is predicting annual growth of two per cent or more and reducing the unemployment rate to a single digit percentage.
Speaking minutes after attending the 40th anniversary service of the Central Bank of Barbados at St Mary’s Anglican Church, Sinckler said every effort would be made to reduce the unemployment rate that stands at 11 per cent.
“The unemployment rate is uncomfortably high and we have to work to get that down, but we always knew there would be collateral damage from the recession,” he said.
“In a recession, when businesses are hurting, when their receivables are down, when their stock of savings is depleted, then we lose jobs. But the fact that the Government has been able to manage the situation to the extent where we have been able to keep a large number of public officers employed, it means that it [unemployment] has not exploded out of control.”
Read the full story in today’s DAILY NATION.
