In his one-hour presentation of the Economic Review of the last nine months, Governor of the Central Bank Dr The Most Honourable Kevin Greenidge pointed to moderate economic growth at 1.4 per cent, a decline in foreign reserves in the third quarter and unemployment at 6.6 per cent, edging up slightly.
However, he said that the economy continued to narrowly grow based on the international pressures coming out of the geopolitical conflicts and the oil crisis leading to an increased cost of imports and impacting the spending powers of tourists.
“The more important point is that Barbados continues to grow, inflation remains moderated, government maintains a surplus on its fiscal account and the public debt continues to fall . . . and our national reserves remain way above benchmark levels. That resilient streak reflects the buffers that we’ve built over the years,” Greenidge stated.
The task ahead, the Governor stated, remained to convert the growth and stability into even stronger growth by delivering investment projects on time and strengthening the sectors that earned foreign exchange and keeping the debt on a sustainable downward path.
The country’s economic growth for the first nine months in the non-traded sector offset the weaker performance in the traded sector with Barbados registering a 1.4 per cent economic expansion compared with the 2.3 per cent for the corresponding period last year. Foreign reserves are at $2.8 billion for 22.8 weeks of import cover and the debt-to-GDP is 93.6 per cent. (AC)