Prime Minister Mia Mottley today promised that she will update the country soon about the Government’s external debt restructuring plan. “Those discussions are continuing, and the public will be advised shortly of what we will be doing with respect to the foreign debt situation,” Mottley said on the call-in programme Down To Brass Tacks on […]
Category: Economy
Workers at State-owned enterprises are being put on notice that there are still more layoffs to come as Government seeks to manage a huge wage bill. “We’ve sent home so far just about 1,000 [people],” Prime Minister Mia Mottley said today on the call-in programme Down To Brass Tacks on Starcom Network Inc. “There are […]
Government has asked the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to helps reforming its indirect tax system, Drector of Finance and Planning Ian Carrington has disclosed. The multilateral lending agencies have been invited to advise on how to bring indirect taxes into balance corporate taxes, he said. IMF tax officials were currently here examining the Value […]
Opposition spokesman on International Business and Trade, Manufacturing and Commerce Bruce Hennis says the Barbados economy is moving in the right direction, but he said there is still cause for concern. Hennis was responding to the latest report issued by the Central Bank of Barbados (CCB). “What we have found was that the economic performance […]
Government is moving quickly to turn Barbados’ economic situation around so that persons can once again be employed. Minister in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Investment, Marsha Caddle, made this known Friday, as she addressed the “Blast-Off” seminar held by the Barbados Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors at the Hilton Barbados Resort. She […]
A Barbados delegation is to hold talks next week with officials from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). A government statement said that the team from the Ministry of International Business will be attending the Forum on Harmful Tax Practice (FHTP) from January 9 to 11. It said that during the forum, […]
Having fallen from glory, the Barbados economy stood at the edge of a precipice at the beginning of 2018, requiring urgent resuscitation and emergency surgery to save it from total collapse. But with a general election looming, politics almost automatically became the focus of the day, even amidst burgeoning calls from various groups for urgent […]
Despite taking several hits over the years, including a fall off in sales due to economic conditions and the introduction of similar type retail shops, Chairman and Managing Director of Shopsmart Wallace Griffith said he remained committed to Barbados. Shopsmart started out as the first membership only warehouse type shopping on the island 18 years […]
The Barbados Government gets top marks from the International Monetary Fund for its efforts to restructure the economy. At the end of a staff visit by the International Monetary Fund to assess progress being made since the implementation of the Barbados Economic Recovery Plan (BERT) , Head of Mission Bert Van Selm said, “Barbados has […]
The shares of Sagicor Financial Corporation, valued at approximately US$536 million, are to be sold to Toronto-based special purpose acquisition firm Alignvest Acquisition II Corporation in a deal that officials of both entities expect will unlock value for its shareholders. Once the insurance company approves the deal Sagicor will delist from the stock exchanges in […]
The Toronto-based Scotiabank is drastically scaling back its operations in the Caribbean after more than a century of doing business in this region. The Barbados operation of the bank is not included in the US$123 million banking deal that will see nine other operations going to Republic Financial Holdings Limited (RFHL), which operates Republic Bank, […]
by Anesta Henry Prime Minister Mia Mottley this evening said that the Government’s restructuring exercise was affected by “sabotage”, but served notice that the order would be restored. Reiterating that she was “deeply disappointed” in how the retrenchment exercise was being carried out, Mottley said “she was satisfied that there was an element of sabotage […]
by Anesta Henry Prime Minister Mia Mottley has welcomed the recent upgrade from international rating agency Standard & Poor’s as “great news”, saying it was an indication that Barbados was on its way back. However, the Prime Minister whose Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration has been implementing tough measures to stabilize the ailing economy cautioned […]
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Government of Barbados have formalized a historic loan agreement for US$100 million to support the Barbados Economic and Recovery Transformation (BERT) Plan. Having pledged the IDB’s support to the Barbados Government during an official visit in June 2018, IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno returned to the island on […]
Government has issued a memorandum to Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Department with an offer of voluntary separation from the public service. The memo, dated November 16, was issued by Head of the Civil Service Dr Louis Woodroffe. “As part of its programme to modernise the public service and implement the Barbados Economic Recovery and […]
Standard & Poor’s has raised its long- and short-term local currency sovereign credit ratings on Barbados to ‘B-/B’ from ‘SD/SD’ (selective default). At the same time, S&P assigned its ‘B-‘ issue-level rating to Barbados’ long-term debt issued in its debt exchange. S&P also affirmed its ‘SD/SD’ long- and short-term foreign currency credit ratings on the […]
Former Prime Minister Owen Arthur has been conferred with the title of Professor of Practice: Economics of Development by the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. The appointment, which it took effect at the start of this month, was confirmed at the University Appointments Committee meeting in October. Arthur, who thanked the university […]
