Straughn: Simplify economic discussions for ordinary citizens

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn is challenging economists to simplify discussions on the micro and macro economy so that ordinary citizens can make wise financial decisions.

He issued the call today as he delivered the feature address at the start of the Central Bank of Barbados and the Caribbean Economic Research Team’s 55th Annual Monetary Studies Conference at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

Straughn told his audience that if the region is to thrive even further, one aspect that was “genuinely missing” was greater clarity about the macroeconomy and microeconomy. He, however, pointed out that there was no separation of the two, despite the view held by Caribbean citizens.

The minister reasoned that an explanation of the terms was needed throughout the region, so economists must make that connection with citizens and devise ways to break down 55 years of economic research to their level.

“One of your tasks, really is, how do you take 55 years of very robust research and help Caribbean citizens understand how to make better financial and investment decisions to mobilise the region’s savings for the benefit of our citizens [and] for the development of our region,” he emphasised.

Commenting on the benefits of research and data application in the context of solving complex issues during polycrises, and working out the best deal for its citizens, Straughn reiterated that experts must “take the time not to just do the work to be published in the journals, but to…meet with the stakeholders and to explain what is happening”.

“Therefore, the activism that is required now, as economists, I believe, to become more interventionists is going to be important. How does that work? Fifty-five years of research, we need institutions to help move research into reality so that people can make better decisions.

“I believe the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has to be much more aggressive in addressing some of those long-standing, critical issues that have affected our region, our ability to invest across borders, our ability to settle across borders. Our ability to procure across borders has to be at the centre, in my view, as to a renewed CDB,” he proffered.

Additionally, the minister implored economists to point out the inextricable link between all Caribbean people and their ability to invest collectively as a means of finding solutions to lowering the cost of doing business while delivering greater efficiencies, and security, among other benefits, in a globally challenged environment.

Calling for more robust frameworks for collaboration, he said: “If you keep going into the market individually, as Company A in Barbados, Company B in Trinidad, Company C in Jamaica, the size of your order is so small in the world market that each of us will pay a premium above that, which, if we agreed on a framework, would allow us to at least give our citizens the better deal. It may not be the best deal, but it will be a better deal.”

Straughn told the group that while he applauded and commended their research efforts, they “must move to a different level, where research is not just the place where you come and you have [a] discussion and you critique the papers and you go through the process and they’re published, but the citizen must understand better, how policy-making, how things that are happening globally, and the decisions that each of us will take will ultimately impact all of our ability to be able to deliver for our people”.

“As economists, I say…the idea of breaking the mould is, for some, a discomforting thing. But the reality of it is that unless we are able to translate the data into action, such that some person in the private sector is up there tomorrow making business and investment decisions, whether individually or collectively, and where appropriate regionally, then our 55 years of research will be there in the annals of history, and our citizens will not be the beneficiaries, ultimately, of that research,” Straughn underlined.

He continued: “We need an urgent, robust conversation as to how we are able to turn research into action and that action into the building of resilience right across this Caribbean, in order to ensure that we give ourselves the best chance to be able to withstand these polycrises.”

(BGIS/SM)