Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, says that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) should get ready for the effects of imported inflation because the rising cost of living, which is caused in part by rising gas prices and other things, is likely to keep going up.
Mottley said at the 44th Regular CARICOM Heads of Government meeting’s closing press conference in Nassau, The Bahamas, on Friday that prices have started to go down because freight costs and other factors that affect the cost of living have gone down. However, the region is not likely to get the full benefits.
“Unfortunately, we all know that when prices go up in our area and maybe in other places, they rarely go back down. In our own country, we’ve tried to make a deal with the private sector and the labor movement to keep markups down. I say “markups” because we don’t make most of the things we use in this area. So we will bring inflation in from abroad, since inflation is coming from abroad.”
The region’s annual food import bill is around $5 billion, and the CARICOM Heads of Government have promised to cut this by 25% by 2025. People say that putting the CARICOM Agri-Food Systems Strategy into action in the member states could help reach this goal by focusing on high-priority crops and products like poultry, corn, soya, meat (goat, sheep, and beef), rice, and niche vegetables that are currently imported in large quantities into the region.
Mottley talked about the Barbados Initiative, which encourages the addition of a “natural disaster clause” that would temporarily stop a country’s interest rate payments on its debt if it was hit by a natural disaster. In this case, Mottley asked for more fiscal space.
“We need better terms and conditions for getting money so that we can buy more, do more, and make more space so that we can do more for our citizens. She said, “This region has a lot of debt, but it’s not because of waste or corruption. Instead, it’s because we continue to face serious shocks from the outside and also serious problems related to the climate crisis.”
“Every time a hurricane, storm, or flood hits, it’s always the government that has to pay to help people get back on their feet. To build the houses, take care of the infrastructure, protect the coastal defenses, and do all of these other things takes up space that would normally be used to give people access to education, health care, and subsidies to help them deal with the rising cost of living, she said.
