By; Staff Writer
September 16, 2022
Democratic Labour Party president Dr Ronnie Yearwood says that Barbados going into another International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme is “worrying,” and further asserts that Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s economic agenda has failed.
Dr Yearwood, speaking to Caribbean Magazine Plus, said that there were so many things the Mottley administration could have done to spur economic activity but the administration is “stuck in gear,” with no other option than to run to the IMF again for an additional $340m in addition to the $290m the country already received in 2018.
Dr Yearwood also said: “Her comments are worrying and contradictory. Because on the one hand, you are saying that the economy is doing really well, which makes no sense if you are going back to an IMF programme. So everybody is trying to understand that on the one hand you are telling us the economy is doing very well and it’s going to grow by 10 percent, and then you’re telling us you need to go back to the IMF to shore up the economy to make sure the economy can do well?”
The contradictions by the Mottley administration is just too much to bear for Dr Yearwood and charges that Ms Mottley is suffering from “cake-ism,” where she wants her cake and be able to eat it too. “You can’t have it both ways in this context, either we are doing well and we don’t need the IMF for growth.”
Ms Mottley, speaking at a news conference, said that her government had decided to return to the IMF later this month “with the intent of starting a BERT (Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation) 2022 programme.
“This decision has not been taken lightly, but this is being done to ensure Barbados can continue its trajectory of positive growth,” she said.
“In addition to providing further means to stabilise our country, this programme will unlock critically important funding, giving Barbados a boost on the great progress we have already made, despite the hardships brought on by the global challenges,” Mottley said.
If there is growth in the economy there is no need for borrowing money because the government would be able to pay back its debt and be able to finance their capital projects. Dr Yearwood said: “So if there’s growth then there’s no need for borrowing to pay off your debt, to finance government capital projects, etc.
“If you’re borrowing and that means that you’re borrowing because you’re not growing enough, or you’re not having enough capital inflows, whether from tourism, whether it’s from your capital projects, whatever the situation. So I think we find ourselves in an odd and contradictory place in terms of what the Prime Minister is trying to sell, and the reality is, people aren’t buying it.”
According to the Central Bank of Barbados, the country had negative growth in 2018-2020 and only grew at .7 percent in 2021 and projected to grow at 11 percent in 2022. Dr Yearwood, however, believes that since the Prime Minister has “stalled” on many of her economic initiatives all Ms Mottley had to do was come back to the Barbadian people and say that “the things I’m doing aren’t working out and we have to go back to the IMF for more help.
“So all the things I’m trying to do the economic restructuring and the debt recovery, aren’t working in the way I want them to work, for whatever reasons.”
There can be no “fair weather” government in Barbados as when Ms Mottley took over the reins of power she inherited all of the county’s challenges, COVID-19, inflation and all else is no excuse for not executing on the government’s agenda.
“It’s your job to lead when things aren’t going well. Actually, that’s when leadership kicks into deal with stuff when things are going well,” he said.
Dr Yearwood gives her the respect she is due and says that one thing Ms Mottley is good for is electioneering, but governing is left wanting.
This is not to say the DLP had a stellar record before Dr Yearwood took over as they were voted out in a landslide in 2018 where they won no seats and again lost the election by a landslide again winning no seats in parliament, which means that for now the DLP has a lot of convincing to the Barbadian electorate when election time rolls around again.
This is a challenge Dr Yearwood accepts as the DLP’s new leader because he believes that the next generation of politicians must engage themselves on the ground, face to face with the people to find out what their problems are and why some things are not moving in the direction they ought to. “We just can’t sit in our offices and bark out orders and expect them to be done. We have to go out and see if they are done and if they are not, find out why not and ensure that it gets done.”