Show Notes
#pandemic #caribbeaneconomy #infrastructure The Pandemic has produced the deepest economic shock on record for most countries in the Caribbean region, and the pace and degree to which countries recover will depend crucially on policy choices and actions of governments in the near term. The surge in new cases further complicates the prospects for recovery as the recession grinds on.
In this podcast, David Rosenblatt, Caribbean Regional Economic Advisor , and Henry Mooney, Research Economics Advisor for the Caribbean Department discuss the new Caribbean Quarterly Bulletin report on policy options for the region in balancing the need to keep citizens safe and open key economic sectors. They point out that regional responses focused on immediate health needs, as well as vulnerable households and corporations have been prudent, but the next phase should include an acceleration of infrastructure investment.
This episode of Improving Lives in the Caribbean is hosted by Golda Lee Bruce, Development Storyteller for the Caribbean.
To access the new Quarterly Bulletin, A Pandemic Surge and Evolving Policy Responses, click here: https://publications.iadb.org/en/caribbean-quarterly-bulletin-volume-9-issue-3-november-2020.
To learn more about our work in the Caribbean, visit: https://devtrends.iadb.org/en.
More from Caribbean Economic Trends
After two tumultuous years, 2023 remains characterized by headwinds facing countries across the world. Just as the pandemic’s effects began to dissipate in 2021, a new series of shocks emerged to test Caribbean economies’ fragile recoveries and resilience in 2022, linked in large part to residual impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on supply chains and demand conditions, rising inflation and tightening financial conditions, as well as new global shocks — particularly driven by the conflict in Ukraine.
For more than a year, the Caribbean economics team at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has focused on the potential implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for lives and livelihoods across the region. In this podcast episode, the Caribbean economics team discuss their latest Caribbean Quarterly Bulletin, highlighting two main themes: first, forecasts of key macroeconomic indicators, informed by recent expectations for the speed and breadth of tourism recovery across the region; and second, how financial sector risks have evolved since the onset of the pandemic, including a focus on policies undertaken across the region to dampen the impact of this historic shock on banks, corporates, and households.
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Our latest issue of the Caribbean Quarterly Economic Bulletin highlights new IDB research suggesting that many Latin American and Caribbean countries lag behind most advanced economies in digital and telecommunications infrastructure. Closing these gaps could yield dividends in productivity, employment, and growth—particularly for the six members of the IDB’s Caribbean Country Department (The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago). For some Latin American and Caribbean countries, the benefits in faster growth outweigh the costs.
Countries have endured over a year of extreme uncertainty due to the COVID-19 crisis, and economies in the Caribbean have suffered more than most. With the increasing availability of vaccines and prospects for a resumption of international travel, we can begin to imagine what a post-COVID tourism recovery would look like.