WASHINGTON (CMC) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says economic activity in the Caribbean is expected to stay in low gear in 2014. It said growth remains tepid in most of the Caribbean.
It said that while the recovery in the United States and other advanced economies is expected to bolster export growth, lower world commodity prices and rising global funding costs are likely to weigh on activity across the region.
The IMF in its Regional Economic Outlook for the Western Hemisphere” is projecting regional growth of 2.5 per cent in 2014, down from 2.75 per cent in 2013.
The Washington-based financial institution said that weak investment and subdued demand for the region’s exports held back activity in 2013, as did increasingly binding supply bottlenecks in a number of economies. For 2015, the IMF projects a modest pickup, to 3 per cent.
“The tourism-dependent economies are expected to grow on average by 1.4 per cent in 2014 and the commodity exporters by 3.2 per cent.
“Reducing high public debt levels remains a key challenge in much of the Caribbean along with further efforts to address long-standing competitiveness problems, notably in the tourism-dependent economies,” the IMF said.
The IMF said that construction activity in the Caribbean seems to have bottomed out, but tourist arrivals and spending have continued to unperformed in most countries.
