2023:What Does It Mean For The Bahamas and Caribbean?

Godfrey W. Eneas
Fri, 20 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

External economic shocks have been the Achilles' heel of Caribbean economies which are dependent on the state of the global economy. As a locale with limited natural resources ( bauxite in Jamaica and Guyana and oil in Trinidad and Tobago with very recent finds in Guyana), the region has been unable to insulate its economies against these external shocks. Several in the 21 st century have had a devastating impact like 9/11in 2001, the Global Meltdown in 2008, hurricanes like Dorian in 2019 in The Bahamas, and the Ukraine War in 2022 set off a wave of global inflation. With supply chain disruption caused by Covid-19, many Caribbean economies were paralyzed because of their heavy dependence on tourism, and visitor arrivals on some islands needed to be more present. Tourism for some economies represents 40 % or more of their GNP. In The Bahamas, tourism arrivals were 4.1 million; by 2020, there was a shortfall of 3 million( a 75.73% decline) as arrivals dipped to a meagre 1.0 million.