Do not devalue?Barbados’ currency, grow more food locally and crack down on statutory corporations that have failed to file annual financial statements.
Just as important, pay closer attention to the Auditor-General, whose reports on government spending are crucial. Next, end public financing of constituency councils and the Pan African Commission, two agencies that were wasting taxpayers’ money.
Those were some of the steps Sir Courtney Blackman, a former Governor of the Barbados Central Bank, has recommended the island should take to reverse the current downward trend in its finances.
“The currency peg has been in place since 1975 and there is no doubt in my mind that it is in the best interest of Barbados to maintain the peg,” he told the DAILY NATION after receiving word that Moody’s had downgraded Barbados’ credit rating. “For a country as small as Barbados, with an open economy, the currency peg is our best policy. It is the foundation of our success over the last years.”
