BARBADOS IS ON the road to recovery and should reach it “towards the end” of this year.
That’s the latest forecast from Republic Bank (Barbados) Limited’s managing director and chief executive officer Ian De Souza.
The upbeat senior banker was speaking last night during a reception at his Villa Rosa, Royal Westmoreland, St James residence.
De Souza said that based on an analysis tying the performance of the Barbados economy to the United Kingdom’s he was confident the economic turnaround Barbados wants would happen this year.
“So if the numbers were to hold right, and there is nothing to suggest that history will not prove out going forward, then with what is happening in the UK the likelihood is that you should start seeing a turn towards the end of 2015,” he said.
De Souza also told guests including the media and Republic managers that the bank was “doing exceptionally well”, especially with its recent Christmas loan campaigns.
“One particular thing for all banks in the market is how you do with your Christmas loan campaign, because the business that you put on at Christmas time is the business that takes you through the rest of the year. In 2013 we did a 147 per cent of our target; phenomenal,” he said.
“This year, of course a little bit of a reflection of the economy, we did 118 per cent of the target. In this market to beat your own set target, which was conservative because of concerns. It is not to say that we are making crazy loans, we have very tight lending criteria but the bank continues to perform well.” (SC)
