2011 will see more progress for the region – Caricom’s economic adviser

TIMES INT'L

Dr Maurice Odle, Economic Adviser to Caricom Secretary General Dr. Edwin Carrington, has said that while the global economic and financial crisis is “still very much with us”, next year should be “a little better.” Dr Odle made specific reference to economic activities in the Caribbean Community as these relate to remittances and tourism. 

At an end-of-year press briefing, Dr Odle stressed that 2011 will see more progress, despite the fact that prognoses coming out of Europe and the U.S.A. are not as encouraging as they should be. 

Quoting from the World Economic Outlook, a report of the International Monetary Fund, Dr. Odle said that six member states — Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Haiti, and St Kitts and Nevis — were expected to record negative economic growth in 2010. 

He said member states had very open economies and were therefore vulnerable to any downturn in the world economy. 

“In our case, the problem is that the economic recovery in Europe and the United States – our major economic partners — is not accompanied by significant job growth. What we really have is what economists call jobless growth,” he said.

Dr Odle noted that member states were heavily dependent on remittances and tourism, and the low levels of job creation in Europe and the United States, in particular, had directly impacted those two areas. 

Foreign direct investment had also dried up, and the construction industry was experiencing a downturn.

 

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