Barbados 

Barbados country policy

Policy established 30 March 2010

• No Restrictions
• The country ceiling is 500 mln euro
• Early warning signal 100 mln euro
• - of which was used as at 2010-07-31 40 mln euro

Country class: 4

Barbados country facts

Atradius Dutch State Business Economic Research
Country Report last updated :  3 February 2010
Country :  BARBADOS

Political Situation
Stable

Head of state
QEII, represented by governor-general Sir Clifford Husbands.

Form of government
Government of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), headed by p.m. David Thompson.

Internal Economic Situation
Good But Weak Public Finance

General situation
Barbados has favourable economic and social indicators thanks to stable political institutions, good management and successful diversification of the economic base from sugar output to tourism, financial services and light industries (electronic components). But in 2009 the economy was badly hit by the world recession (esp. in the USA) causing the GDP to shrink by appr. 3.6% but also inflation to fall from 8.2% in 2008 to 2.2% last year. Barbados has a sound banking sector and a good score on the TI-index (23rd of 179) , reflecting low corruption.

External Economic Situation
Solid But High Current Account Deficits

Main sources of foreign exchange
Tourism, electronics and other light manufactures, sugar.

Main foreign markets
Latin America (60%), USA (18%), EU (17%).

Main expenses of foreign exchange
Consumer goods (23%), capital goods (19%).
 

Balance of payments
Imports have fallen more drastically than exports of goods, diminishing the trade and current account but capital imports dropped as well. Stable currency peg of the B$ to the US$.