Jamaica’s tourism sector continues to lead the recovery efforts for the island’s economy, earning US$1.31 billion, of which US$97.58 million has been accrued directly by the Government. According to Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, “Based on our run rate forecast of visitor arrivals for June 202...

Barbados leads the Region in protecting its citizens during the pandemic through unemployment payments, delivering benefits to 88% of unemployed workers, while The Bahamas captured about 26%. That’s the information contained in the World Bank’s report, titled “Employment in Crisis” which asserts ...

The Cabinet of the Government of Jamaica has given its approval for a third telecommunications service provider, Rock Mobile, to be granted a licence to operate locally. According to Technology Minister Daryl Vaz, the RFP for the new provider is in keeping with the Government's policy objectives ...

Remittances flows to Latin America and the Caribbean grew an estimated 6.5% to $103 billion in 2020, supported by a recovering economy and moderately improving labour market in the USA. CARICOM Member States however only accounted for 6.8% with total remittances equalling $7.074 B. According to t...

The IMF and Barbados have reached a staff-level agreement on the completion of the fifth review under the EFF arrangement, which was conducted virtually between May 3-7, 2021. According to the IMF, the economy remains severely depressed by the ongoing global pandemic with tourism operating at a f...

Dr Hyginus ‘Gene’ Leon today took office as President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), becoming the sixth chief executive of the regional multilateral institution. The seasoned economist will lead a team of more than 200 employees headquartered in Bridgetown, Barbados. He comes to the ass...

The Bahamas will shortly select a private group to establish a new statutory body, Invest Bahamas – an independent statutory body that would facilitate the investment process from conception to implementation. The Finance Ministry is reviewing at least 7 bids received in response to a recently cl...

In recognition of the need to streamline the Regional Private Sector’s extraordinary individual and collective response to the devastation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and enhance the inter-agency coordination in times of disaster, the CARICOM Private Sector Organization (CPSO), the Caribbean M...

Saint Lucian Prime Minister Allen Chastanet has presented a EC$1.12 B revenue estimate for fiscal year 2021/22. The fiscal package, which contains “no new taxes,” represents a 21.3% increase over the revised estimate for the last fiscal year. However this is lower than pre-pandemic years of 2018-...

Effective May 8, vaccinated persons entering Barbados will only be made to quarantine pending the results of one locally administered COVID-19 PCR test. This could result in a quarantine period as little as 24 hours. According to Prime Minister Mia Mottley, a vaccinated person is defined as someo...