business newsletter
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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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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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