$400M cut?

ECONOMIST Professor Michael Howard says he cannot see the $400 million adjustment being made to the fiscal deficit without civil servants being sent home, while president of the Barbados Economic Society (BES) Ryan Straughn doesn’t feel Government is serious about making the required cuts.
Noting that Governor of the Central Bank Dr DeLisle Worrell had informed Prime Minister Freundel?Stuart at last Thursday’s Public/Private Sector Consultation the adjustment had to be made to reduce the deficit, Howard said what was most important for many Barbadians now was whether it would feature a downsizing of the public service.
“I cannot see such an adjustment being implemented without laying off civil servants,” Howard said. “But Government has already pledged that it will not lay off a single civil servant, a promise which helped them to win the election.”
Straughn said yesterday he didn’t get the im pression from the way the all-day consultation was conducted that Government was “really serious”.