Business
Caribbean Development Bank states that Caribbean recorded modest economic growth in 2013
The CDB said four BMCs for which 2013 labor force data were available reported double-digit rates of unemployment. The Bahamas’ annual jobless rate, as measured in May, was 16.2 per cent and the year-to- September average for Barbados was 11.2 per cent while the average for the year-to-July was 15.9 per cent for Jamaica; and the first-half average for St. Lucia was 23.2 per cent.
“Reaching record highs in 2013, these rates represented job-less growth in The Bahamas and stagnant economic activity in Jamaica and St. Lucia. Short-term employment programs put in place by the government earlier in the year accounted for Barbados’ slight improvement over the corresponding period of 2012; but public sector lay-offs in the last quarter of the year may have offset this increase.”
The CDB said indications are that unemployment levels also remained elevated in most of the other BMCs, as job creation continued to lag the recovery in output. It said that out turns in relation to foreign exchange reserves varied; but import cover generally remained within accepted norms.
Reserves increased in Belize, the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union and Trinidad and Tobago, but fell in The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica and Suriname. “Most BMCs continued to hold reserves in excess of the 3-month/12-week benchmark. With regard to BMCs operating flexible exchange rate regimes, the Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago dollars remained relatively stable (depreciating by under 0.5 per cent).”
“The Haitian gourde depreciated 3.4 per cent as official transfers and financial inflows related to post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction tapered off. The 14.6 per cent depreciation of the Jamaica dollar, on the other hand, was linked to increased foreign-currency demand.”
The region’s premier lending financial institutions aid that fiscal performance weakened in six of the nine most highly indebted BMCs. Government revenues declined as output contracted in Barbados and St. Lucia, whilst the abolition of tourism taxes and stagnating grant inflows that offset higher proceeds from the recently extended Economic Citizenship Program helped to explain the declines in Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica, respectively.
Increased capital spending in Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Lucia and wage increases in St. Vincent and the Grenadines also contributed to widening fiscal deficits. In addition, St. Vincent and the Grenadines incurred sizable expenditure on the construction of a new airport.
