BARBADOS ECONOMIC SOCIETY (BES) president Jeremy Stephen is worried about the island’s falling foreign reserves.
He said while the Central Bank seemed hopeful that the sale of the Barbados National Terminal Company Limited (BNTCL) and the start of a number of planned projects was likely to bring in $250 million or about US$125 million, it would do little to dent the near $200 million fall in reserves over the last year.
His comments came last night as he responded to Central Bank Governor Dr DeLisle Worrell’s report on the performance of the Barbados economy in 2016.
“Government and the Central Bank are very positive on the receipt of about $250 million that was pending at December 31, so they are expecting, some time in this calendar year, to receive this $250 million, of which $100 million is expected to be gained from the BNTCL sale, and you have got around $68 million that should be [received] from the Chinese relating to the Sam Lord’s project,” Stephen noted. (GE)
