Speed up public sector reforms

THE BERT Monitoring Committee wants to see more action in speeding up reforms within the public service.

The Committee, in its most recent review of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation programme, said that to improve the ease of doing business, “reforms within the public sector” are necessary for growth to resume in the economy.

“These reforms are expected to improve the efficiency and productivity across the various sectors in Barbados, help to attract new foreign investors and facilitate the commencement of some investment projects that have not yet started,” Committee members suggested.

These projects are vital for increased employment and ultimately sustained economic growth, it said.

The BERT Monitoring Committee was created to assess the performance of the agreement Barbados has entered with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

During the period, the IMF Executive Board completed its second review of the agreement, noting that all structural benchmarks had been completed, resulting in the IMF approving a further Bds$97.4 million to Barbados.

The Committee’s most recent review was the period to December 31, 2019, and coincided with the third set of targets under the agreement.

There are projections that growth between 1.25 per cent and 1.75 per cent could take place this year once major construction projects get under way in the country. Those projections have come from the Central Bank of Barbados.

“It is encouraging that the external debt restructuring has been substantially completed and the Barbados credit ratings have been adjusted accordingly,” said the Committee.

Members agreed that the recent upgrade is encouraging news for eventual access to the international capital markets in the future.

They noted that under the performance metric, the central Government may not incur new arrears in the payment of its external debt obligations at any point during the ongoing programme with the International Monetary Fund.

“It should be noted that the definition of new arrears excludes debt where a debt restructuring is being pursued,” the Committee added.