BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Nation News - When international financial institutions (IFIs) tell it like it is as they assess the problems/challenges confronting comparatively small and disadvantaged economies, there is a tendency for some governments to suggest external political considerations or prejudices.
When, however, it is neither, for instance, the International Monetary Fund nor the World Bank, but our own Caribbean Development Bank that chooses to tell it like it is – as it always should, even reinforcing, if necessary, assessments of the IFIs – it would be unwise and quite costly for governments not to pay heed to warnings given.
Well, last Friday the President of the CDB, Dr Warren Smith, chose to engage in some candid assessments and warnings for the institution’s borrowing member countries [so-called BMCs] when he spent some two hours at a Press conference discussing  and answering questions on the state of regional economies as well as initiatives to be pursued in overcoming prevailing fiscal and economic challenges.