PM Urges Barbadians To Spend Less, Save More

Tax-news.com

18 January 2000

At a press conference last week the Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur urged Barbadians to spend less and save more to complement the government's current fiscal discipline. The remarks stem from the liquidity problems the government experienced recently as a result of excess consumption and expenditure during the last quarter of 1999.

Despite this caveat he was generally optimistic about the outlook for the Barbados economy, saying he expected economic growth in the range of three percent this year, which would provide "sustainable economic development" for the small Caribbean nation.

However, he also warned that those sectors of the economy that earn foreign exchange were not growing as fast as those using foreign exchange, saying it was his aim to restore that balance in the Barbados economy. "Barbados needs sustainable foreign capital inflows if we are going to sustain the development of the country," the Prime Minister said.

He also took the opportunity to highlight the fact that Barbados had recently had its credit rating upgraded by Standard & Poor's to its "sovereign" rating, meaning that Barbados scored "A" grades in every loan category from the international credit-rating agency, putting it on a par with the nearby Bahamas. The Prime Minister said that the credit rating upgrade would make bond issues by the Barbados government more attractive and allow the government to have longer maturities on future issues.

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