RECESSION WARNING

AS fears rise of another global economic slowdown, the Opposition People’s Party for Democracy and Development (PDP) is warning it could spell doom for Barbados’ already sluggish economy.

Speaking to the media in the conference room of the Leader of the Opposition’s Office in Parliament yesterday, Scott Weatherhead stated, “If a global recession comes in 2020 and we have Brexit occurring by the end of September, with one of our key tourism markets being the United Kingdom, these two, combined with the programme from the International Monetary Fund still ongoing, you are going to spell disaster for Barbados.”

“We rely on international business and international trade and if our economy is continuing to be in recession, which they say is from the 2008 recession from which we have not yet emerged, and then the world enters another recession, we can expect calamity in Barbados,” he added.

Earlier, the Opposition’s spokesperson on tourism and international travel matters had used the opportunity to express concerns on the cruise industry.

He pointed out while other cruise markets have recovered, the numbers for Barbados were down and noted this was problematic at a time when the tourism sector needed the foreign exchange coming into the island.
Saying this was being attributed to the lack of the Bridgetown Port’s capacity to handle the larger ships desiring to come to these shores, he stated Government was facing infrastructural and financial challenges, which would hurt its ability to address this in a timely manner.

“On the whole, Barbadians are going to see a drop-off in tourism if you cannot solve the cruise tourism that it faces right now, and if we cannot manage the adjustment burden of the population, all these statistics point to another six to eight months of significant pain of Barbadians,” he added. (JMB)