Guyana’s oil output surpasses 350,000 barrels per day as Barbados champions the Bridgetown Initiative for climate finance and the Caribbean Development Bank approves US$120 million in green energy financing for six member countries.

Hurricane Fiona devastates Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic’s southwest as Caribbean energy costs hit record highs driven by the Russia-Ukraine war, and construction costs reach 40% above 2020 baselines.

Our Mid-Year 2022 Six-Month Special Edition covers 4 January to 3 July 2022 — six months dominated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, surging global inflation, the Federal Reserve’s most aggressive rate hike cycle in decades, and Caribbean tourism’s first fully open recovery season post-COVID.

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.

Oil reached $130 per barrel one month into the Russia-Ukraine war, hitting Caribbean energy budgets hard. But summer 2022 tourism bookings hit record levels as the first truly post-COVID Caribbean summer came into view.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 sent oil prices above $105 per barrel, triggering an immediate energy and food price shock across the Caribbean’s import-dependent economies while tourism bookings held firm.

April 2020 marks the nadir of Caribbean economic collapse. Tourism has completely halted, WTI oil briefly went negative, T&T faces a fiscal crisis, and Guyana’s oil windfall expectations are upended. Caribbean GDP forecast to contract 10-15% in 2020.

The Caribbean faces an historic economic emergency with total tourism collapse, WTI oil prices briefly going negative on April 20, and GDP forecast to contract 10-15%. All property transactions are frozen as governments scramble with emergency food security and worker support.

Summer 2017 has delivered a robust Caribbean tourism season and a strengthening property market — but as this edition goes to press, forecasters are tracking a rapidly intensifying hurricane that poses a grave threat to the Leeward Islands.

ExxonMobil’s announcement of a world-class oil discovery at the Liza-1 well on the Guyana Stabroek Block on 20 May 2015 has electrified the Caribbean investment community. This edition covers the most transformative energy event in the region’s modern history and its far-reaching property market implications.