Economic recovery may be on the way in Barbados and the Cayman Islands but the same can’t be said for their Eastern Caribbean neighbours.
That’s the assessment of Tony Rice, Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) chief executive officer, as he sought to explain to analysts and journalists recently in London why the company was not doing well in the Caribbean but performing much better in Monaco and Macao and why the prospects for a strong performance in Panama were much greater than in the Caribbean.
“There are signs of recovery in the Cayman Islands and Barbados . . . but the Eastern Caribbean and Jamaica are still suffering terribly from the downturn,” said Rice. “It’s going to be a while before the economies of the region show significant growth, and that feeds through to disposable income.”
He was responding to questions in Britain about CWC in the island nations and coastal states. CWC’s share price fell 12 per cent on the earnings report, tumbling to 42.41 pence (BDS$1.35) a few days ago after the company warned that earnings for the first quarter were hurt by poor economic and trading conditions in the Caribbean.
“The economies are very weak,” he said of the region that was suffering due to the poor performance of the high-end segment of the tourism industry. And that’s where the assessment of Barbados, Cayman Islands, Jamaica and other destinations came in.
CWC provides a worldwide voice and data service and during the first three months of the year, it did well in some segments of its markets but suffered in the Caribbean.
For instance, its revenue rose by four per cent to US$2.44 billion while its profits inched forward by a mere one per cent to US$872 million before taxes, depreciation, interest and amortization. (TB)