Caribbean & Central America - April 2019

*** CARIBBEAN DEVELOPMENT BANK LOOKS FOR POSITIVE GROWTH. In its 2019 economic outlook, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) says that it is expecting 2.1% regional growth in 2019. The bank said: “In 2018 most of the CDB’s BMCs [borrowing member countries] recorded positive growth. Growth averaged 1.9%, an improvement on 0.5% in 2017.”

In 2018, the fastest growing economy was Grenada (5.2%), and this is again expected to lead the way. For 2019, the CDB said that “construction, tourism, and the extractive industries, such as gold and oil, are expected to expand”.

The CDB’s 19 BMCs are: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands.

*** BAHAMAS’ REVENUES BOOSTED BY VAT INCREASE. The tax-take in The Bahamas, whose dollar is pegged to the US dollar at one-to-one, increased by $60.7m to $430.2m in the second quarter of FY2018/19. The 16.4% boost was a direct result of the government’s 4.5% increase in the VAT rate to 12% last July.

*** MORE RESOURCES NEEDED FOR ANTIGUA & BARBUDA’S INTEGRITY COMMISSION. An Organization of American States (OAS) anti-corruption unit has called on Antigua & Barbuda to increase the amount of resources available for the country’s Integrity Commission. An OAS report says that the commission “continues to be limited” by its lack of resources, and it notes: “Between 2014 and 2018 there have been eight cases involving charges of Corruption in Public Office. Two cases were dismissed, three were withdrawn, and an additional three are still pending.”