Barbadian Economy Struggling, Says Central Bank Governor

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

08 May 2002

In her review of the first three months of 2002, the Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, Dr Marion Williams predicted that the country's economy will fall by around 1% this year, unless the tourist sector picks up dramatically.

Dr Williams revealed that the economy had contracted by 4% in the period between January and March, with the export, tourism, and sugar production sectors suffering the heaviest blows at declines of 12%, 8.4%, and 66.4% respectively, according to a report in Monday's Barbados Nation News.

Although the Central Bank Chief did not express a great deal of optimism for the jurisdiction's short term economic future, warning that sugar production and tourism are likely to continue to contract this year, the Nation News article suggested that Barbados' recent removal from the OECD blacklist of 'uncooperative tax havens' could be the economy's salvation.

'Uncertainty in the international business and financial services sector should ease with the recent removal of Barbados from the list of countries categorised by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development as exhibiting harmful tax practices,' Dr Williams was quoted as announcing.

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