BARBADOS Labour Party’s spokesman on economic matters Clyde Mascoll is urging government to tell the public the state of the economy since the fiscal measures put in place did not meet the set targets.
In a media statement issued yesterday, Mascoll says that the Central Bank Governor Dr Delisle Worrell and the Freundel Stuart government are admitting failure of the fiscal measures that started in 2009/10, based on statements made by Dr. Worrell in the January economic letter.
“In which he said Barbados had repeatedly failed to achieve the balance between its foreign exchange outflows and inflows necessary for a stable economy, and his recommendation on further restriction on spending in order to protect the country’s foreign exchange reserves.”
‘Suffering in vain’
“This means the suffering Barbadians have been enduring for the last eight years has been in vain,” Mascoll charged.
Mascoll stated that the public would have seen that what the Barbados Labour Party as well as regional and international economists were saying about the state of the economy is true.
“Dr Worrell confirmed all that we have been warning about when he said that Barbados had repeatedly failed to achieve the balance between its foreign exchange outflows and inflows, necessary for a stable economy.
“Now that Government’s policies have failed as predicted, the Governor is using the threat of devaluation to sell the need for more taxation and/or cuts in government expenditure.
“This is clear from his statement: ‘The reserves are what protect us against the devaluation of our currency. . . The future is exceptionally promising, but it will not happen unless we make it happen, and like all worthwhile objectives, realising the vision will not be painless.’”
Conflicting message
The spokesperson said that the decline in the country’s foreign reserves which persisted into the last quarter of 2016, is at odds with this positive talk about the tourism sector.
“Government, not the Governor, needs to say clearly what went wrong and explain to Barbadians how further fiscal measures will be implemented. Or, will we be again treated to a situation where the Minister of Finance comes out in disagreement to Dr Worrell’s position.
“We simply cannot go on like this. The Governor should not be the one bringing this news on fiscal policy. Government needs to come clean with the public and outline what is really going on in the economy,” he said.
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