IMF says declining growth rate across the Caribbean is serious cause for concern

The declining growth rate across the Caribbean is a serious cause for concern.

That’s the declaration from Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Dr. Nigel Clarke.

Dr. Clarke was delivering the keynote address for the 2025 William G. Demas Memorial Lecture entitled, “The Caribbean Challenge: Fostering Growth and Resilience Amidst Global Uncertainty.”

The lecture, which was held in Brazil, honours the leadership of the Caribbean Development Bank’s second president by bringing into focus the issues and initiatives of significance to the economic development of the Bank’s member countries.

Dr. Clarke, who served as a Governor of the Bank for almost seven years, noted recent impacts on the region’s growth rate, such as the United States’ tariffs.

However, he explained that the decline in the Caribbean’s growth began decades before.

This, he said, creates a challenge.

Dr. Clarke explained that this development could stifle opportunities for the region, despite exceptions for some countries like Guyana, with growth accelerating to 45 per cent on average in the past three years.

He pointed to economic stability as one goal that must be pursued by policymakers to help address the growth decline.

However, he warned that there is no magic or quick solution to the problem.

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.