Thorne dismisses Central Bank report as detached from reality

Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne has dismissed the Central Bank of Barbados’ latest economic review as detached from the lived experience of Barbadians, noting that the report’s optimism around growth, inflation, and foreign reserves fails to reflect the persistent struggles of the population.

In response to the Bank’s first-quarter 2025 report, released on Wednesday—which showed the economy expanded by 2.6 per cent and maintained a revised annual growth forecast of 2.7 per cent—Thorne said there was little in the data to celebrate.

“It would be absolutely disastrous if, at the end of a tourist season, you did not have increased growth. So that’s nothing new—that is expected. No alarms there,” he said in an interview with Barbados TODAY. 

“We expect that tourism in April, at this time of year, to have increased. So no surprises there.”

Thorne also downplayed the significance of the $3.4 billion in international reserves cited by the Central Bank, arguing that those levels were inflated by external borrowing rather than productive domestic performance.

“In terms of the foreign reserves—again, nothing to applaud. We borrowed a lot of money, and therefore, we have a lot of money in our foreign exchange account. Again, no surprises there,” he said.

The Leader of the Opposition further challenged the Bank’s revised inflation outlook, which projected a range of 1.7 to 3.5 per cent in the coming year, even as global supply chain disruptions and weather-related food shortages remain risks.

“If any report tells us that inflation or inflationary growth has slowed, I want to challenge that,” Thorne said.

“I think the average Barbadian would challenge that by his or her experience in the supermarket. The cost of living continues to be a major problem.”

He said the public does not need official inflation figures to know how deeply prices are affecting household budgets.

“The average person knows inflation through their pockets, not through a report,” he added.

The Central Bank’s economic review highlighted record-breaking cruise arrivals, increased long-stay visitor numbers, strong reserve levels, and a primary fiscal surplus of $662.8 million.

Thorne, however, argued the report failed to confront structural weaknesses in the economy or what he said was the widening gap between economic data and people’s daily hardships.