After battling nearly five years of economic drag, the Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI) is asking Government to take a chance on a “moderate economic stimulus”.
BCCI president Lalu Vaswani has told the SUNDAY SUN that unless something happens soon, the private sector might not be able to sustain current employment levels. Unemployment in Barbados stands at 12.2 per cent.
Vaswani stressed that the private sector understood Government’s fear of running down the island’s vital foreign reserves on consumer imports, particularly when the tourism sector was hurting from reduced visitor spending. However, he argued that maintaining economic activity in the country was also key to keeping Barbadians employed.
Furthermore, the chairman of Satjay Bridgetown Centre Ltd said fellow business people were convinced that the island’s $1.3 billion in foreign reserves were enough to risk a small economic stimulus.
