Is there likely to be a Budget this month? Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI) president Andy Armstrong strongly believes so.
In an interview before Prime Minister David Thompson announced his Cabinet reshuffle, Armstrong said: “I have a strong feeling that we will see a budget sometime in October.”
According to the BCCI president, Barbadians had come to expect a budget even if all the policies and programmes had already been agreed in the Estimates of Income and Expenditure.
“The budget is the event when people listen in to hear the policies of the Government. It is important from a [public relations] perspective, if nothing else to have a budget,” he explained.
In the meantime, Armstrong said his members had been advised to keep a watchful eye on recurring expenditure as there was still uncertainty about when the economy would turn around.
“It is prudent not to exhaust all of your savings. We have encouraged our members to try and refocus their business more towards exports because we need that as a country,” he added. (GE)
