KINGSTON, Jamaica - A senior economist with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is warning member countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) that they face similar challenges now confronting the Eurozone countries.
Alfred Schipke, formerly of the IMF Western Hemisphere Division, said the Eastern Caribbean Currency and Economic Union, may be the smallest of three economic and currency unions worldwide, bringing together eight small islands, whose total combined population is less than a million.
But he said it is an interesting microcosm of the Euro area and the challenges it faces following the global economic crisis of 2008.