The Caribbean is still struggling to come out a near three-year recession and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) tells regional governments to keep a tight rein on Government spending.
David Vegara, the IMF’s deputy director for the Western Hemisphere today stressed that recovery of Caribbean economies would be weak because of the region’s heavy dependence on the economies of the United States and Europe.
Vegara was in Barbados as the Central Bank of Barbados and the IMF launched the IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook at the Grande Salle, Tom Adams Financial Centre in Bridgetown.
He said that because of the region’s heavy dependence on major trading partners in industrialized countries, the its growth prospects had been held back.
Pointing to falling tourism receipts, slowed foreign exchange inflows from private capital projects, as well as weaker remittances, the IMF official said those circumstances had all converged to create a very difficult situation for Caribbean governments.
