Submitted by Peter Lawrence Thompson
The pandemic is a paradox; on one hand it has destroyed our major industry, but on the other it is giving us a once in a lifetime opportunity to rebuild a much more resilient economy around services that we provide digitally to the global marketplace.
Our economic future is under a dark cloud because the COVID-19 pandemic has had a particularly devastating effect on Barbados. It has triggered an 18% annual slump in economic activity, raised unemployment to levels not seen for generations, slashed tax revenue, and ballooned the national debt. This harms all Barbadians, but it is particularly damaging to the life prospects of young people, not only because they have a disproportionately high unemployment rate but also because they will have to shoulder the burden of the expanded national debt over the coming decades.