Caribbean economies post above-forecast GDP growth as tourism recovery accelerates, but Russia-Ukraine commodity prices strain budgets. Barbados completes a successful IMF programme review as Guyana’s oil expansion advances.

Barbados made history on November 30, 2021 becoming the world’s newest republic as Dame Sandra Mason was inaugurated as President. The Omicron variant emerged just days before, testing the region’s tourism recovery momentum.

May 2020 sees the deepest economic crisis in Caribbean history. Nearly all hotels are closed, hundreds of thousands are unemployed, and governments are racing to deploy wage support, rent relief and mortgage deferrals. Hurricane season opens June 1 on top of the pandemic.

As the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season opens, Caribbean investment remains buoyant — with CBI programmes, hotel development, and renewable energy all driving regional confidence.

Caribbean spring 2019 opens with exceptional momentum — Easter tourism records across the region, Barbados one year into its IMF programme with encouraging progress, Guyana’s oil excitement building, and a residential property market buoyed by supportive interest rates and strong demand.

Barbados secures a landmark IMF programme in October 2018, providing a credibility anchor for the island’s fiscal reform. As the Caribbean holiday tourism season peaks, Dominica marks 14 months of slow-but-steady reconstruction and Jamaica’s property market closes the year on strong footing.

Caribbean property markets hold steady as the 2018 hurricane season reaches its peak, with unaffected islands sustaining strong tourism momentum. Barbados PM Mottley’s three-month-old administration accelerates economic reform discussions while the region reflects on its improved preparedness versus the 2017 catastrophe.

Caribbean summer tourism delivers record-breaking results for unaffected islands as post-Irma visitor diversion continues to benefit Jamaica, Barbados, and the Dominican Republic. Barbados PM Mottley’s two-month-old government accelerates IMF discussions while the construction sector booms across reconstruction territories.

Mia Mottley’s BLP won all 30 seats in Barbados’s 24 May 2018 election — the most decisive electoral result in the island’s history. The new PM brings a bold economic reform agenda. The Caribbean tourism season closes strongly, the 2018 hurricane season opens on 1 June, and nine-month reconstruction updates across Irma and Maria territories.

As Caribbean spring tourism delivers a strong performance across unaffected islands, Barbados stands at a historic political crossroads: a general election must be called within weeks, with PM Freundel Stuart’s DLP facing Mia Mottley’s BLP in what polls suggest will be a decisive contest. Meanwhile, reconstruction across Irma and Maria territories continues.