BUSINESS MONDAY: Former Central Bank economist: Strong leadership saved Barbados’ dollar

FORMER Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, the late Dr. Kurleigh King, admitted that he was a little afraid that the Barbados dollar would have been devalued during the economic crisis the country experienced in the early 1990s.

Those comments, according to retired Central Bank of Barbados Economist, Peter Whitehall, are contained in the book the Bank recently released just over a week ago.

Whitehall, who was giving an endorsement at the ceremony to launch the book, “Both Sides of the Coin: The Story of the Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017”, said he had never heard such.

He remarked that Harold Codrington, who edited the book while undertaking a considerable amount of research for it, was somehow able to get four of the previous Bank Governors to actually document their recollections.

According to Whitehall, the late Dr. King is quoted as saying however, that guided “by the expertise of our top management, we devised a way to avoid a devaluation and were convinced that as long as [we] remained resolute, we would succeed”.

Whitehall said the fact that Barbados staved off a devaluation was because of the strong leadership provided by the Bank as well as leadership in other entities. That, he explained, was Dr. King’s philosophy.

Whitehall said he is fascinated by the amount of detailed information carried in the book.

He revealed that Codrington, who retired from the Bank about two years ago, attended all the meetings called for the preparation of the book.

“So that when he writes, he did so as someone who was there,” Whitehall said, while noting that to make the book authentic, Codrington researched every aspect of the publication.

Saying he found things in the book he was not aware of, Whitehall recalled one area of the publication where Codrington said that perhaps the Bank’s finest hour was during the economic crisis of the early 1990s when the Bank went out in the fight to preserve the value of the Barbados dollar. He said that something similar is being done in the prevailing economic situation.