Caribbean economic recovery will take some time — IMF

Jamaica Observer

While many countries, particularly those in Latin America, are expected to show encouraging growth this year and in 2011, the Caribbean is expected to take a longer time to recover from the ravishes of the global economic crisis that took hold in 2008.

Speaking with Caribbean Business Report from the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington DC, at the unveiling of the World Economic Outlook Report, Chief of the World Economic Division Petya Koeva Brooks said: "The Caribbean is one of the regions in the world which is among the most affected by the global crisis.

It is interesting if you look at the average growth rate for 2010/2011 to discover which countries have negative growth rates. Of course the most countries in that category are in central and eastern Europe but the second most is in the Caribbean."

She went on to say that there are several reasons for this. Chief among those is the very grim outturn for unemployment in advanced economies which has definitely taken a toll on tourism and tourism revenues in many of the Caribbean countries.