Third term, BERT 3.0 era

Prime Minister Mia Mottley has pledged that her administration’s third term will drive economic competitiveness, productivity, and resilience under BERT 3.0, moving beyond stabilising the economy to deliver tangible relief on living costs and growth that reaches households.

Delivering the feature address at the swearing-in ceremony on Monday, Mottley said the new term would be “fully anchored by the six national 2030 missions” and shaped by fidelity to “the BERT 3.0 programme, which rests upon competitiveness and productivity”.

She stressed that while the country had emerged from a prolonged period of economic repair, that phase was never intended as an end in itself.

“Stabilisation was never our goal, and that this mission of transformation and building resilience must be national,” she told the audience. “Building resilience and transforming our nation for the better are now our critical missions.”

Under BERT 3.0, the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation programme moves beyond fiscal consolidation and debt restructuring into a growthoriented phase. As outlined by the Central Bank of Barbados, the emphasis now falls on economic expansion rather than balance-sheet repair, productivity gains across sectors, structural reforms to support private-sectorled growth, and resilience against climate and external shocks, while maintaining macroeconomic discipline and debt sustainability.

Pointing to the economic groundwork laid since 2018, she defended the government’s record on debt reduction amid overlapping global crises.

“And as we have made that good progress, we’ve also reduced debt. Contrary to what some will continue to tell you, our debt today stands just above $15 bn in a much larger economy than the one we inherited eight years ago almost,” she said. “Over the last seven and a half years, Barbados has had to stabilise the ship of state in the middle of these global crises. The pursuit of stability was necessary for us to reach here.”

With that stabilisation phase largely complete, Mottley said the challenge now lay in ensuring that growthtranslated into tangible improvements in people’s lives.

“Our work, therefore, will be grounded with more money in your pockets and more affordable prices where you have to buy critical goods, not your wants but your needs,” she said.

She also linked that policy direction directly to everyday realities, warning that macroeconomic gains meant little if households continued to struggle. “Without that [macro-economic stability], we have nothing,” she said, while underlining that stability alone could not carry the country forward.

Affordability pressures, she acknowledged, remained acute.

“Cost of living is not a slogan for us. It is the daily reality that households must manage,” the prime minister said, noting that rising prices continued to hit “working families and pensioners and the most vulnerable the hardest and we will not pretend otherwise”.

She confirmed that measures promised on the campaign platform would now be implemented in full. “This government will implement the package of measures that I spoke to each and every night on the platform to reduce the burden on people in this country and to put more disposable income in their pockets,” Mottley said. That package, she added, would extend beyond the $142 m already outlined. “Not just the $142 m that I spoke of, but also the additional benefits to the middle class that we indicated we could not quantify at the time, but will quantify by the next Budget next month in March.”

Beyond direct income support, she said, affordability would remain central to the government’s approach. “One aspect is putting money in people’s pockets. The other aspect will continue to be keeping prices affordable in our country,” Mottley said, pledging continued engagement with labour and business. “We will work in a targeted and sustainable way with our social partners to shield the most vulnerable from the vagaries of global inflation.”

The PM framed those commitments as part of a broader covenant with the population, insisting that delivery, not rhetoric, would define the administration. “If you are not delivering for the family struggling with the price of a basket of goods, if you are not delivering for those who are most vulnerable, who are exposed to the elements in our country, then my friends, we will not be fulfilling our covenant with the people of Barbados,” she warned.

She reiterated that social protection would remain nonnegotiable.

“This government will continue to protect the vulnerable and to lift those who are struggling. We will continue to create opportunities,” Mottley said.