The Government of St Lucia will introduce a tourism levy effective December 15, 2020 to aid in the financing of the industry marketing and development. In a two-tier system, guests will be charged either US$3 or US$6 per person per night depending on a room rate below or above US$120. A rate of 5...

Jamaica has recorded 3,586 new company registrations for the period January 1 to November 11, 2020. That’s according to data produced by the Companies Office of Jamaica and released on social media by Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke who noted that “in the middle of the pandemic and record econom...

International ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has maintained its long and short-term credit ratings of B-/B with a stable outlook for the Barbados economy. “The stable outlook reflects our view that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a significant impact on Barbados’ economy and that ...

National Commercial Bank (NCB) Jamaica Limited and Republic Bank of Trinidad and Tobago are the only 2 banking institutions in the Region to be named in Global Finance's list of the World's Safest Banks in 112 countries. According to Global Finance, which is headquartered in New York with a circu...

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has announced that the T&T government will revisit the energy sector tax regime to ensure the country remains competitive. This in the wake of a recent study by the IDB said T&T’s fiscal regime for the energy sector is one of the most uncompetitive in the re...

On September 30, 2020, the United States Senate voted unanimously to renew the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) until September 30, 2030. H.R. 991 had passed the House on September 23rd. The legislation will come into force upon signing by the US President. The CBTPA is a preferen...

The Surinamese economy is officially running at a rate of SRD 14,018 for the purchase of the US dollar from September 22, while it is being sold for SRD 14,290 by the official exchange offices and foreign exchange banks. Maurice Roemer, Governor of the Central Bank of Suriname (CBvS), in making t...

The Bahamas is set to become the world’s first country to launch a sovereign digital currency next month. After piloting the so-called Sand Dollar on the islands of Exuma and Abaco last December, the central bank will roll out the e-currency nationwide in October. Officials say it will make digit...

Money transfers to Jamaica are projected to have grown 14.1% for the June quarter, reflecting a recovery from the initial onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on Bank of Jamaica, BOJ, preliminary estimates. For the month of June alone, remittances were up 42%, the central bank governor said ...

Barbados has been lauded for its implementation of its economic reform program, while expanding critical investments in social protection. That the result of an IMF staff visit via videoconferencing between August 25-28, 2020, to discuss implementation of Barbados’ Economic Recovery and Transform...