Business
Hard times ahead in the Caribbean Community
2012 promises to be an economically challenging year for the 15 countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), only 3 CARICOM countries, namely Guyana, Suriname and St Lucia experienced any meaningful growth – each of whose economies grew by 4.4 percent in 2010 – the other 12 CARICOM countries experienced no meaningful growth and the economies of most of them contracted, including oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago (-0.6 percent).
Although official figures are not yet available for 2011, it is clear that economic and financial conditions continued to deteriorate with rising debt and weak fiscal performance in the majority of countries. In the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) there is increasing concern about the quality of assets in the banking system, particularly of indigenous banks with urgent action required to improve the situation.
The debt burden of many CARICOM countries, and the region as a whole, is quite alarming. Apart from Suriname, no CARICOM country has a debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio below 50 percent. The ratio is over 100 percent in St Kitts-Nevis, Jamaica, Barbados and Grenada. It is pretty close to that figure in Antigua and Barbuda and Belize.
