Although it was researched in April, published in July and relies to some extent on ‘guestimates’, it remains one of the only sources of information on how our economy is being managed.
And the news is not good. It’s not horrendously awful either, but it’s far from rosy.
What does that mean and why should the average Bahamian care?
Since the IMF is the cooperative watchdog on the global economy, what it thinks of the fiscal stability and prospects of member countries matters for several reasons:
Major international investors use IMF reports when seeking repositories for their money; equally important and more immediate, IMF reports are a major basis for determining the terms for international lending and borrowing; also, were the Bahamian dollar ever cut
loose from the US dollar, the IMF would have much to say about its worth.
In the 2003 country report, the IMF is critical of The Bahamas For a number of failings:
* Failing to bite the bullet and cut the national deficit while continuing to borrow money;
* Failing to make any real attempt to move away from a system virtually dependent for revenue on customs duties on imports and on tourism fees, both of which are totally
vulnerable to world economic cycles;
*Failing to do anything concrete about the impending collapse of the National Insurance scheme, which some employers are allowed to believe is a voluntary system, and the government seems to look upon as a rainy-day piggy bank;
* Failing to do much to encourage investment by lowering labour costs, raising productivity, and making business here more competitive with other countries seemingly more hungry for revenue;
*Failing to make it easier to measure just how well The Bahamas and Bahamians are doing on the global stage, because the statistical yardsticks needed for that measurement are outdated, no longer collected or clutched to bureaucratic bosoms as though they weren’t public information collected by public servants at public cost.
Basically, the IMF is sounding a very loud warning, not of financial disaster, but of the effects of failing to act, and of our chronic tardiness in dealing with the harsh realities facing the nation.
And why do these things matter? Quite simply they come down to jobs, our standard of living and the personal future of our children and that of the country as a whole. If we don’t fast grab control of our economy in a meaningful way instead of voicing platitudes, the far-from-rosy can turn into the horrendously awful much faster than we want to know.
Editorial, The Nassau Guardian
