Prime Minister Mia Mottley has stated that as the country moves forward with its restructuring plans, job cuts in the public sector are inevitable. However, she went on to state that there would be no callous layoffs and that the Government would make provision to cushion the blow for those affected. Dismissing claims by the former Central Bank Governor, Dr. DeLisle Worrell, that thousands of job cuts would be necessary, Mottley stated that other forms of restructuring would be employed.…
Guyana’s Economy grew by 4.5 percent in first half of 2018.
The Minister of Finance of Guyana, Winston Jordan, has announced that the country grew by 4.5 percent in the first half of 2018 and year-end growth is projected to be 3.7 percent. The growth in the economy was broad-based and driven by various sectors such as: Agriculture 3.4 percent, livestock 29.1 percent, forestry 18.1 percent, services 8.2 percent, construction 13.4 per cent and extractive industries (except gold which fell by 19 percent) averaged 26 per cent growth. Read more HERE…
Central Bank of The Bahamas hopes to have digital fiat currency in circulation in 30 months.
The Central Bank of The Bahamas has issued an invitation for the submission of Expressions of Interest (EOI) from suitable firms to work on the design of a reliable platform for a digital version of the Bahamian Dollar. The Bank anticipates that the piloted version of the digital currency will be in circulation within thirty (30) months. Read more HERE…
Caribbean aims to become the world’s first Climate-Smart Zone.
The Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator was officially launched on 9th August 2018. The accelerator brings together twenty-six (26) countries and over forty (40) private sector partners to implement transformative climate action across the Caribbean. The initiative comes from the first commitment of Emmanuel Macron’s One Planet Summit which aims to respond to the extreme natural events in the Island States via the mobilization of USD 3 billion in public-private partnerships within a USD 8 billion investment plan. Read the following links for…
NCB Jamaica makes Record Profits
NCB Financial Group, parent of National Commercial Bank Jamaica recorded profits in excess of USD 157 million representing an increase of 40 percent over the same period in the previous year (ended June 30). This represents the bank’s best performance to date. The Bank’s expenses also increased by 37% for the same period, while net loans and advances increased by 70% over the previous year. Non-performing loans also increased from 2.6% to 4.8% in the same period. The Directors declared…
Grenada PM assumes Chairmanship of the ECCU
The Prime Minister of Grenada, Dr. Keith Mitchell has assumed the chairmanship of the ECCU, replacing Dominica’s PM, Roosevelt Skerrit. Mitchell claims that during his tenure he will be addressing issues such as Fiscal and Debt Resilience, De-risking, Bank fees and charges, establishing the ECCU Credit Bureau and fintech regulation and supervision. Read more HERE…
OECD Publishes New Tax Report
The OECD has published the report on the progress of implementation OECD tax standards. The document reports on the activities of the tax agenda for the period 2017-2018 and well as the progress which has been made therein by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax purposes. Some snippets are as follows: 1.) By June 2018 (from 2009), jurisdictions would have identified EUR 93 billion in additional revenue due to tax transparency initiatives; 2.) Concerning the…
Bank of Asia Officially Launches in the British Virgin Islands (BVI)
The Bank will be offering services to the approximately 200,000 BVI-registered business with ties to Asia. The BVI has seen marked reduction in the number of companies registered in the BVI, particularly in the offshore banking sector. The reduction is attributed to the difficulty offshore banks encounter when trying to obtain banking services. The recent de-risking phenomena have forced banks to reassess their risk appetites which has significant spillover effects for the offshore sector. Bank of Asia is being touted…
TT Foreign Reserves Continue to Slide
As at June,2018 Trinidad and Tobago’s foreign reserves stood at USD 7.8 billion or 8.6 months import cover. Even though the country’s reserves are well above the international benchmark of 12 weeks import cover, the declining trend has become apparent. Reserves fell by 18% between June 2016 and June 2018. View Report HERE See Data Source…
New AML Newsletter with a Caribbean Focus
A new newsletter has been issued for compliance professionals which will examine in depth, issues of importance to the Caribbean. The AML Digest Newsletter is designed to examine AML topics in depth and to provide helpful information to compliance specialists. The newsletter edited by Louis Parris is now available for free download at: https://joom.ag/yHvY…