FORMER PRIME MINISTER Owen Arthur has warned that unless the Central Bank of Barbados changes its policy it may be deemed guilty of “an act of economic vandalism”.
He was commenting on the bank’s provision of hundreds of millions of dollars over time to the Government, which has been experiencing cash flow problems.
Delivering a lecture last night at the Hilton Barbados resort, Arthur called on the bank to stop the policy, telling the large gathering that both the International Monetary Fund and the rating agency Moody’s had criticised it.
According to Arthur, “the landscape of the developing world is strewn with the wreckage of economies where the large-scale printing of money to finance the deficits of wayward governments has been allowed to become the norm”.
The lecture was one of the highlights marking the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados. (TY)
