Region must take an introspective approach to recovery

WHILE Caribbean countries cannot change the global economic environment where they operate, they must look towards addressing internal shortcomings.

This suggestion has been highlighted by two research assistants attached to the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance (CCMF).

“Sustainable economic recovery can only be generated through internal growth strategies, hence the renewed focus on issues related to competitiveness in the Caribbean,” said Rajiv Segewan and Dave Seerattan in a joint CCMF presentation on the economies of this region.

“The region must demonstrate more urgency in efforts aimed at simplifying the approval process for investments, improving the transparency with which rules and standards are applied, improving the financing options for small and medium-sized enterprises and dealing with the very important and difficult issue of improving the work ethic in the Caribbean,” they recommended.

They said that the global economy continues to experience slower than expected growth with downside risks set to dominate in the near future.

The CCMF officials also warned that another threat to Caribbean economies is the lagging effects of Hurricane Sandy in the United States. They noted that the areas affected by the Hurricane are host to a relatively large section of the Caribbean diaspora and “as such, it is expected that remittances and tourism flows would decline as this community rebuilds”.

They pointed out further that global economic uncertainty has also risen significantly, driven by recent economic events and that the International Monetary Fund now predicts that there is a 17 per cent chance that global economic growth will fall below two per cent.