Caribbean Region Quarterly Bulletin: Volume 8, Issue 4, December 2019

The divergence in the development of the countries that correspond to the Inter-American Development Banks Caribbean Country Department and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) continued into 2019. While The Bahamas, Barbados, and Jamaica have benefited from strong world demand and still low commodity prices, they are also each dealing with fiscal challenges resulting from high debt-to-GDP ratios and related vulnerabilities. The situation in Barbados required immediate attention, and the authorities signed a four-year Extended Fund Facility supported by the International Monetary Fund. At the same time, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago are still recovering from the fall in commodity prices, with both countries barely exiting recessions. Guyana is an outlier in the region. Based on strong gold prices and the prospect of income and revenue from oil extraction scheduled for 2020, the country is experiencing strong economic growth, partly caused by fiscal expansion. The situation in the OECS countries is similar while rebuilding from the 2017 hurricanes is ongoing in some countries, others have made important progress on their fiscal reform agenda.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Inter-American Development Bank
Other Authors: David Rosenblatt
Language:English
Published: Inter-American Development Bank
Subjects:Fiscal Policy, Inflation, Economic Development and Growth, Government Budget, Public Debt, Fiscal Deficit, GDP Growth, Interest Rate, O54 - Latin America • Caribbean, O11 - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development, G18 - Government Policy and Regulation, G38 - Government Policy and Regulation,
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0002085
https://publications.iadb.org/en/caribbean-region-quarterly-bulletin-volume-8-issue-4-december-2019
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