IMF lowers Barbados’ growth forecast

• The IMF is less optimistic about Barbados’ growth prospects this year, warning that COVID-19, especially its Delta variant, had “hobbled” the global economy’s recovery. 
• In January, the international financial institution forecast Barbados’ economy would grow by 7.4% this year, but lowered its prediction to 4.1% in April. 
• Now, in its World Economic Outlook released yesterday, the IMF said growth this year would be 3.3%, followed by 8.5% in 2022 and 1.8% in 2023. 
• The 3.3% forecast matches what the Ministry of Finance outlined in the Barbados Fiscal Framework 2022/2023 to 2024/2025 tabled in Parliament recently, and is the range of the one to three per cent outlook that Central Bank Governor Cleviston Haynes gave in his second quarter report. 
• That being said, an eventual rebound of tourism and base effects are anticipated to be the drivers of growth.

(Source: IMF & Nation News Barbados)