DLP deserves second chance

The current adminstration says it deserves a second chance to run the country as new numbers show unemployment dropped to 10.2 per cent at the end of 2011.
In a bold declaration from the House of Assembly today in what could be the last Estimates of Income and Expenditure debate before the next general election, Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler made a lengthy case for the public to stick with an administration under pressure but one remaining focused.
Sinckler’s argument, in a three-hour long pre-lunch session, was that Government had kept the exchange rate peg, contained job losses, kept the island’s foreign reserves at a safe $1.4 billion, maintained social services, and brought down the deficit, all while battling the worst global recession in recent history.
And while the Barbados Statistical Service’s website showed unemployment figures only to the end of September 2011, the Central Bank of Barbados’ statistics to the end of last December showed female unemployment fell from a high of 14 per cent in the third quarter to 11.7 per cent.
The percentage of male unemployment fell from 11.2 per cent in the third quarter 8.6 per cent at the end of last year.
In what was clearly a rallying call to the electorate, Sinckler told the Lower House to loud thumps of support from the Government side that “One good turn in the management of the economy in the worst recession deserves a second term.”
Full story in the DAILY NATION