Above: Bridgetown, Barbados (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Caribbean needs “decisive reforms” to boost competitiveness and private sector investment in order to overcome low potential growth in the region.

That was among the findings of a two-day joint International Monetary Fund-Caribbean Development Bank forum in Port of Spain this week.

The talks included officials from countries across the Caribbean, including the member states of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, along with the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the British Overseas Territories, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Caribbean’s economy is “gradually recovering,” with commodity exporters benefiting from favourable global conditions, but tourism and services-dependent economies still “adversely affected by the tepid recovery in advanced economies.”

The region also has a number of strengths on which it can build, including political stability, strong investor protections and the observance of the rule of law, the two sides said.

But reforms, including a focus on lowering the relative cost of goods and changing structural impediments, are necessary to create jobs, the two organizations said.

Protecting the poor and “vulnerable” are “central” to reforms.

“Building on the social cohesion that prevails in the Caribbean, fiscal consolidation and structural reforms should also focus on improving social safety nets by making them more efficient and equitable to better target protection to the poor and vulnerable groups,” the statement said.

The IMF and CDB also said that, while there has been a general increase in financial interconnectedness, its accompanying large benefits also carry risks.

“We had a fruitful exchange of views at the Forum, some of which provided important food for thought, and participants recognized the desirability of a deeper and ongoing regional policy dialogue,” the two sides said in a statement. “The challenge to achieve sustainable growth in the region calls for a broad-based collective and collaborative approach.”