Reserves warning

WITH BARBADOS’ FOREIGN reserves registering a sharp decline, a top Barbadian economist in the United States wants his birthplace to consider taking urgent steps to reverse the nation’s negative economic picture.

And those steps can range from turning to the International Monetary Fund for loans so that Barbados can borrow foreign exchange at reasonable terms and conditions; cutting expenditure; slashing the financing of the operations of state enterprises; curbing the printing of money by the Central Bank; selling some of the nation’s assets.

Fearing that further steep declines in the foreign reserves could lead to Barbados running out of foreign exchange to pay for imports, meet interest payments on existing loans and other debt obligations, and generally running its affairs, Charlie Skeete, a former Barbados Ambassador to Washington expressed concern about the state of the nation’s balance of payments and the sharp rise in the amounts “we need to balance the overall account”. (TB)

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