Bitter medicine prescribed for Caribbean economies in 2011
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With most Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries registering reverse growth in 2010, a hot search is on for new alternatives to old economic problems and future strategies to cope with present challenges in 2011 and beyond.
Many are hoping for early answers at an upcoming search conference later this month in Barbados, where academics, researchers and policy makers will gather to discuss how best to recover Caribbean growth after the most recent global economic crisis.
The Governments and Private Sectors are turning to and hoping for palatable prescriptions from economists and academics. But the general consensus is they will be prescribed more of the same bitter medicine that the region's leaders have been taking slowly and in reluctant doses over the past decade.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the Central Bank of Barbados have jointly organized a conference for January 27 and 28, to discuss issues related to Caribbean regional economic growth, and their associated policy challenges.
The conference, entitled "Options for the Caribbean After the Global Financial Crisis" will discuss economic growth strategies to better inform IMF policies in the Caribbean, as more countries look to the Bretton Woods institutions for international prescriptions for national economic salvation.
Like most of the rest of the world, Caribbean economies didn't fare well in 2010. Of the 15 Caricom member-states, Guyana and Surinam alone posted highest growth rates in 2010.
The Bahamas is already showing signs of economic recovery in 2011, but it does very little trade with other Caricom member-states.
The Dominican Republic – which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti – is bracing for a 7 percent growth in 2011. But it too, like Haiti, does very little business with Caricom.
Same with Belize, which is located in Central America.
More Caribbean countries are looking to the IMF and the World Bank for rescue financing and other fiscal and monetary policy arrangements. Jamaica and Antigua & Barbuda both signed agreements with the IMF in 2010.
Some states are also taking local steps to ease their economic burdens. Barbados and St. Kitts & Nevis raised taxes and cut spending – and others are expected to follow as they prepare their annual Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure – national budgets – for the 2011-2012 financial year.
Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines last year looked to Venezuela's ALBA initiative to lower fuel costs, while Grenada has been taking a strong second look at its offshore financing tax haven arrangements.
Caribbean economies (minus Haiti) collectively recorded a 2.3 percent decline in growth in 2010, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
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