PM Weighs in on Barbados’ Economic Crisis

Dean Barrow

On assuming office, one of the first actions of Prime Minister Mia Motley of Barbados was to turn to the I.M.F. for assistance in developing an economic reform plan to put the economy on a good footing. After years of challenges, the island’s international reserves have dwindled to two hundred and twenty million U.S. dollars and its debt unsustainable. Here at home, external and domestic debts have reached to over three billion dollars. Much of it owed externally for the super bond and to international development banks. In fact, the external public debt stands at seventy percent of Gross Domestic Product, in the range of two point three billion dollars while domestic debt totaled twenty-two percent of G.D.P., some seven hundred and fifty million dollars. In light of Barbados’ economic crisis and Belize’s own debt, we asked PM if there is anything to learn from the Caribbean island’s own experience and should there be concern for Belize. He says that we are not nearly close to Barbados’ economic woes :

Dean Barrow, Prime Minister

“We are not nearly at that level where they have to turn to the IMF, we are steady as she goes. There is of course the need for us to keep on an even key with respect to the debt over hand. We need to bring down the debt to GDP ratio so that it can be improved from where it is. but we are not in dyer straights, we are not undergoing any kind of a crisis, so all we need to do is maintain I repeat as steady as she foes course and come out of this period of consolidation and begin to record the kind of growth we would like to see and the kind of growth that we saw in the past and we begin to achieve that once again.”