President of the Young Democrats Kemar Stuart
PRESIDENT of the Young Democrats Kemar Stuart says government must give the full picture on the “true” state of the economy and outline a plan for growth.
He was speaking during a press briefing where he voiced his concerns about the economy as he gave an assessment of the Barbados Labour Party’s IBLP) two years at the helm of the country.
“As it stands right now the government must tell Barbadians how they plan to fill a billion dollar hole in its finances. The governor of the Central Bank predicted an 11 percent drop of in economic activity and that is a panic of itself. and we must find means and ways to fill that gap.”
Saying that the government has been giving a lot of “feel good” impressions as it relates to the economic situation of the country, he argued that by entering a programme with the International Monetary Fund, the country basically signed away its ability to effectively respond to shocks within the economy.
“We have not been borrowing from sources other than the IMF and we definitely think given the current situation we cannot borrow anymore money from the IMF. We placed hand cuffed on our hands as it relates to our ability to respond to crises.
“Before the COVID the economy registered eight consecutive periods of economic decline. there was no growth plan before the BERT (Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation) programme came into plan and up to now the government did not put a growth plan in place but is seeking to cut wages. As was said publicly before by independent economists, a move like that would essentially send the economy into a deeper recession.”
He stated that the government actually agreed to cut the public sector two years ago. “But the BLP did not put that information out there especially as it relates to the wage bill. The government agreed to a 30 million cut which is 0.3 percent in wages two years ago but the COVID gives them prime opportunity to be able to brush over that information. I think it is high time that the government comes clean and put the facts here as it relates to the economy and let people know what is really going on within their livelihoods.”
“I would urge government not to use the crisis as a disguise of the deep financial issues which we are experiencing right now and which we will experience in the coming months. As I said we had those issues within the economy and we had a lot of feel-good impressions as it relates to the facts. the current financial policies of the government and the BERT will continue to exacerbate serious hopelessness among Barbadians.
Stuart argued that the BERT programme was never a growth plan, rather a fiscal consolidation programme. ”...which meant to increase taxation and make cuts to government expenditure which includes wages and which includes the sale and divestment of some government assets. So we must look forward to the sale of some government assets coming up in the future,” he warned.
With some 40 000 unemployment claims on the books, and with Barbados’ two main source markets for tourism being hard it during COVID 19, Stuart says Government must devise strategies on how to move forward.
“I think the same energy that is being dispense towards rebuilding tourism should be put to agriculture...Food security is very important for Barbadians and i think the government must use programmes like the Feed Programme in order to empower, to enfranchise Barbadians into food security and being able to feed themselves first as opposed to a more focus on tourism oriented projects.”
“The DLP supports the view that food comes before the building of hotels. The massive increase in debt- 1 billion in debt since the administration came to Office, we think that is a very serious situation which must be spoken about,” he said. (JH)