Not only has the Medium Term Fiscal Strategy (MTFS) failed, says former Prime Minister Owen Arthur, but Government must rethink its economic policy, build confidence among the private sector and make Barbados a more attractive place to do business.
Arthur, the most senior Member of Parliament, told the SUNDAY SUN yesterday Barbados was in danger of becoming a society which no longer had a viable economy since its policies for betterment had not worked.
“The extent of the fiscal problem that was supposed to have been corrected by the MTFS has become even deeper. That strategy has failed,” he said. “The problem has now reached into the productive sector and those sectors that are supposed to be driving our growth and development and pulling us out of this morass are themselves deep in crisis and getting deeper.”
Arthur said not only had arrivals for tourism, Barbados’ largest foreign exchange earner, fallen by nine per cent in the first three months of this year, but he also had been informed by tourism officials that for the first 15 days of April, tourism arrivals were down by a whopping 24 per cent.
