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Preliminary overview of the Caribbean economies, 2008-2009

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Preliminary overview of the Caribbean economies, 2008-2009

Autor institucional: NU. CEPAL. Sede Subregional para el Caribe Physical Description: 65 páginas. Editorial: ECLAC Date: March 2009 ECLAC symbol: LC/CAR/L.189

Description

This report addresses the main features of the evolution of Caribbean economies during 2008 and, especially, the prospects for 2009 in the context of the ongoing international financial crisis and economic turmoil. As is well known, small open economies, such as those of the Caribbean, are highly influenced by developments in the world economy through a variety of channels of transmission that include international trade, tourist arrivals, remittances, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and external financing. The intensity of these effects will depend, among other things, on the fiscal position, the external gap, and the level of public debt and international reserves. These issues, together with policy responses devised by Caribbean countries to tackle the current situation in the global economy, are analyzed from a regional comparative perspective. A preliminary assessment of the financial sector in various Caribbean countries is also included, as well as a discussion and evaluation of the cyclicality of fiscal policies in most of them over the last decades. The second section presents country briefs of the seven Most Developed Countries (MDCs) - i.e. Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago - and a subregional assessment of the eight countries members of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU), i.e. Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines are also presented.

Table of contents

I. The gloomy world economy.--II. External vulnerability and growth prospects in the Caribbean.--III. Channels of transmission of the global economic crisis to Caribbean economies--IV. The financial sector in the Caribbean countries--V. Measures implemented to tackle the global crisis in the Caribbean countries.--VI. Cyclicality of fiscal policies in the Caribbean: Preliminary evidence and analysis.--VII. Conclusions