After seven years of austerity measures it appears that the Barbados economy has worsened as stated by Moody’s in their most recent downgrade to Caa1.

Of grave concern are their comments that “significant fiscal challenges remain over the horizon,” albeit that their outlook is stable.

We in the Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry remain very concerned that the two major reasons for this recent downgrade were:

• HIGH DEBT TO GDP RATIO
• LOW FX RESERVES DOWN BY 19% SINCE 2013.

In fact Moody’s warns that “the slow pace of fiscal consolidation continues to pressure Barbados’ reserves buffer, putting the exchange rate at risk”.

President of the BCCI, Eddy Abed, reflected that the stability of the Barbados economy and by extension the growth of the economy requires all stake holders to participate in a brainstorming exercise to truly problem solve on a national level.

“The solutions will require buy-in from all members of the Social Partnership and a strict adherence to abide to the agreed prescription until the patient is well!” he added.

Time is no longer a luxury that we have to fix the economic problems of our country and sadly we recognize that the road to recovery will be overcast at best with intermittent periods of glorious sunshine.

In achieving 50 years of independence we have reason to pause and reflect on the many sacrifices and pride of our citizens and the good governance from both political parties. We must build on this to ensure that the dreams and aspirations of the young are achievable in a sustainable economy. President Abed concluded his comments by saying that we cannot settle for anything less than excellence.

“In the coming weeks, we intend to invite the stake holders to a national dialogue so as to seek consensus on bold, short and medium term solutions.”