BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The tourism industry in the Caribbean is showing signs of recovery with the sector recording a 5.4 per cent increase last year as compared to 2011, a senior Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) official has said. CTO chairman Beverly Nicholson-Doty said that the sta...

BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC – Parliament has given the nod to the terms of a restructured one billion dollar (One Belize dollar = US$0.49 cents) super-bond even as opposition legislators complained of the “arrogant and reckless” position of the government and being kept in the dark over ...

NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – The Bahamas has praised Ireland for its contribution to the development of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) saying it is also playing a pivotal role in the island’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said the es...

CGX  announced that it has begun drilling for oil in the Eagle-1 Well in its 100% owned and operated Corentyne Petroleum Prospecting Licence – the same spot it was evicted from by Surinamese gunboats 12 years ago. CGX’s rig is the second to be drilling for oil simultaneously offsho...

LONDON—A pledge by the Group of Seven most powerful economies to not intentionally weaken their currencies pushed stocks higher on yesterday while dragging the dollar lower against the Japanese yen and the euro. The G-7 nations, which include the US, Japan and Germany, said their economic poli...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, Express- NOW THAT Carnival 2013 is over Trinidad and Tobago may well give some thought to last weekend's statement by Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines that this country is breaching Caricom's Revised Treaty in providing fuel ...

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - WE have a sense that the Government's version of JDX, being called the National Debt Exchange Offer, is a smart way to squeeze $17 billion annually out of the system, without sending the nation into panic. We will return to this tomorrow in this space. But at the sa...

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - It was not a happy group inside the Bank of Jamaica Auditorium in Kingston yesterday morning as Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Peter Phillips hosted the launch of the National Debt Exchange (NDX). The second of its kind in t...

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - ELIMINATING discretionary waivers altogether could return $4 billion in revenue to the Government. But the tax breaks, which are approved after applications are considered by the finance ministry, mostly go to charitable organisations, while public sector bodies and gov...

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - Monday night's unprecedented joint broadcast by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Finance Minister Peter Phillips about the proposed restructuring of Jamaica's domestic debt - and other measures to reform the economy - is a welcome first step. But Mrs Simp...