Business
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The Bahamas turns to the private sector to drive investment: CARICOM BUSINESS
The Bahamas will shortly select a private group to establish a new statutory body, Invest Bahamas – an independent statutory body that would facilitate the investment process from conception to implementation. The Finance Ministry is reviewing at least 7 bids received in response to a recently closed Request for Proposals (RFP). According to the RFP, Invest Bahamas would be, “a…
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Acceleration of the Regional Private Sector’s Relief Response to the crisis in St Vincent and the Grenadines
In recognition of the need to streamline the Regional Private Sector’s extraordinary individual and collective response to the devastation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and enhance the inter-agency coordination in times of disaster, the CARICOM Private Sector Organization (CPSO), the Caribbean Manufacturers’ Association (CMA) and the Caribbean Chambers of Commerce (CARICHAM) convened a meeting on April 16th 2021 with…
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“No new taxes” in St Lucia’s 2021/22 $1.6B fiscal budget: CARICOM BUSINESS
Saint Lucian Prime Minister Allen Chastanet has presented a EC$1.12 B revenue estimate for fiscal year 2021/22. The fiscal package, which contains “no new taxes,” represents a 21.3% increase over the revised estimate for the last fiscal year. However this is lower than pre-pandemic years of 2018-19 and 2019-20 in which revenue was recorded at EC$1.20 billion and EC$1.19 billion…
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Barbados to relax quarantine requirements effective May 8: CARICOM BUSINESS
Effective May 8, vaccinated persons entering Barbados will only be made to quarantine pending the results of one locally administered COVID-19 PCR test. This could result in a quarantine period as little as 24 hours. According to Prime Minister Mia Mottley, a vaccinated person is defined as someone who in a two-dose regime had received both doses plus 14 days,…
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Guyana set to grow by 20.9% in 2021: CARICOM BUSINESS
Guyana’s economy will remain resilient against the effects of COVID-19, maintaining its growth trajectory as the petroleum sector ‘picks up steam’, the World Bank has said. Guyana grew at an extraordinary rate of 43.5% in 2020, having completed a year of oil production. The positive spill-over effects have been dampened by a deep contraction in the non-oil economy, triggered by…
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Bahamas seeking to increase cruise passenger expenditure: CARICOM BUSINESS
The Bahamas is targeting a $400m increase in annual passenger spending after data revealed more than 40% spent less than $50 in Nassau pre-COVID, thereby seeking to increase expenditure to $100 per head. According to the Ministry of Tourism in The Bahamas, data for 2019, the last full year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, revealed that 43% of cruise passengers…
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Fitch Affirms Jamaica at ‘B+’; Outlook Stable: CARICOM BUSINESS
Fitch Ratings Agency, has affirmed Jamaica’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘B+’ with the outlook remaining stable. The Stable Outlook is supported by the expectation that the public debt level will return to a firm downward path post-pandemic, which is underpinned by political consensus to maintain a high primary surplus, the resilience of external finances, and stronger economic…
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Jamaica opens fiscal year with cash reserves of $90 billion: CARICOM BUSINESS
Jamaica’s Finance and the Public Service Minister, Dr Nigel Clarke, says the island opened the 2020/21 fiscal year with cash reserves of approximately $90 billion, or more than 4% of GDP. Clarke attributed this was to the policy of amassing the country’s cash reserves to pay down debt. This resulted in Jamaica’s ability to finance a 3.5% fiscal deficit without…
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Loan market hits trillion-dollar mark in Jamaica
Outstanding banks loans in Jamaica hit a new record of $1 trillion at the end of 2020, but non-performing loans (NPL) loans grew by more than 40%. Total loans across the banking system increased by 9%, from $915 billion to just over $1.03 trillion at the end of December, but grew by 17% in 2019. In its Quarterly Monetary Policy…
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CDB Projects Return to Economic Growth in 2021: CARICOM BUSINESS
The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is reporting that the economies of its 19 Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) contracted by 12.8% on average in 2020 but is projecting an average GDP growth of 3.8% in 2021. According to the Bank in 2020, the majority of BMCs registered double-digit declines in GDP. Countries with significant tourism industries, such as The Bahamas, Barbados,…
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