Business
East Caribbean states working towards greater economic integration
But since the first oil price shock in the early 1970s, the economic progress of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) countries has been challenged.
Although growth hit an annual average of 6 percent in the 1980s thanks to the banana boom, tourism and foreign direct investment, it has fallen to around 1.5 percent in the last decade.
The region is now one of the most highly indebted in the world, Sir Dwight said, with debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratios of over 100 percent, partly because the standard of social welfare is that of a middle to high-income country, while economic development has not kept pace.
“The economies must be re-oriented to create domestic efficiencies that make them more competitive, both regionally and internationally,” he said.
