IT’S NOT SIMPLY a Christmas phenomenon.
Bajans appear to be regaining their overall appetite for spending, despite the lingering bitter taste of Government’s austerity measures – signalling the economy’s emergence “from a prolonged economic slump”.
And the correlation between personal consumption and retained imports of consumer goods also suggests that consumers are spending half of their money on food alone. In 2013 consumers spent $4.1 billion.
That number grew to $4.3 billion last year, and is on course to increase by the time the numbers are tallied at the end of this month.
Economist Stacia Howard, who heads local economic intelligence firm Antilles Economics, has concluded this might be a clear sign that “the Barbados economy appears to be emerging from a prolonged economic slump, fuelled mostly by personal consumption”. (SC)
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