Government’s revised fiscal consolidation programme, introduced a year ago to stabilise the foreign exchange market and protect the Barbados dollar, is working.

Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Christopher Sinckler, reminded members of the media at a press conference yesterday of the programme’s objectives – the principal one being the stabilisation of the foreign exchange market and the others being to reduce the fiscal deficit to more manageable levels, and to slow and eventually cut the growth of public debt.

The Minister disclosed that the most notable success has been “the return of stability and confidence in the foreign exchange market”. According to him, it was clear from the current figures available to Government that the fiscal consolidation programme had been effective in restoring balance to the foreign exchange market and in securing the Barbados dollar. He said that normal patterns of changes in foreign exchange reserves had been restored and reserves were currently equivalent to 15 weeks of import cover.

“Equally, evidence is becoming clearer every day that external investors, behind a positive shift in government policy on investment, are seeing renewed opportunities on island,” Sinckler added.

Despite these successes, Mr. Sinckler warned that Barbados was not yet out of the woods and needed to continue to forge ahead with efforts to further strengthen the foreign exchange market and grow foreign investments. (JS/BGIS)