USA / GRENADA —The World Bank’s board of executive directors approved the financing of US$25 million for Grenada’s First Recovery and Resilience Programmatic Development Policy Credit. Before the pandemic, Grenada’s steadfast reform path to building economic resilience had attained solid growth, debt sustainability and poverty reduction. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused massive socio-economic impacts, which are expected to exacerbate the pre-existing vulnerabilities of Grenada as a small island developing state.
The financing will help support the country’s recovery by promoting a greener and more climate-resilient economy, improving sustainability, and greater accountability of fiscal management.
“While COVID-19 has slowed growth, the Government of Grenada continues to work to enhance climate resilience, diversify the economy and encourage inclusive growth.” said Lilia Burunciuc, World Bank Country Director for Caribbean countries. “The country is poised for sustainable recovery by including a sound disaster risk management framework, increased digitalization and wider use of renewable energy in this operation.”
The project will assist in establishing a comprehensive disaster risk management legislation to utilize resources efficiently and effectively, promote wider use of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency. Additionally, increased use of technology is expected with the passage of legislation and other plans to increase data safeguards.
In addition, it will support the government in strengthening fiscal accountability and mitigating risks to fiscal sustainability, including support for climate change and gender considerations in the budgeting process. The project will also assist with the implementation of a permanent unemployment insurance program to enhance the labor market’s resilience. Another objective is to build the capacity of Grenada’s statistical system to enable more informed and timely policymaking.
Grenada also received World Bank funding for US$15 million this month to make the country’s transport infrastructure more resilient to the impacts of climate change and natural hazards.
The Grenada Resilience Improvement Project will finance interventions to protect principal transport corridors against coastal erosion fueled by sea-level rise and flooding at the crossing of the country’s largest river.
Article Published May 26, 2022 on caribbeannewsglobal.com
IDB and LinkedIn analysing regional job recovery, market transformation
The Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, is collaborating with career development and networking platform LinkedIn on assessing key labour indicators that have been emerging since the pandemic, with the aim of guiding recovery efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The first analysis released by the collaborators assessing the transformation of the labour market indicates that there has been job growth in the digital economy and the field of technology, as well as heightened demand for technological skills in the region.
The study examines hiring rates and skill penetration, as well as specific skills needed to develop tasks in each job in critical economic sectors.
The IDB said that these indicators are both fundamental measures of the state and quality of labour markets.
According to the study, there was a 70 per cent drop in hiring in Latin America and the Caribbean at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The field of information technology, however, has seen its strongest jobs growth under the pandemic. At the opposite extreme was education, where the hiring rate has not yet rebounded to its February 2020 level.
“The trends of decline and recovery during the crisis match those we saw in our Labour Observatory, but they broaden our perspective on trends in the field of information technology,” said Laura Ripani, head of the IDB Labor Markets Division. “This information is very valuable for designing quality job recovery policies as described in the IDB Better Jobs Index,” she said.
As a priority of the IDB Vision 2025 goals, the bank has said it is seeking to harness the opportunities of the expanding digital economy to drive recovery in the region.
The IDB-LinkedIn collaboration falls under the Development Data Partnership initiative, which is an alliance between international organisations and companies that facilitates access to and responsible use of third-party data for international research and development.
The data analysed under the alliance represents a subset of the labour force: higher earners, workers in knowledge-intensive sectors, and formal employees.
The next joint report by IDB-LinkedIn will assess the penetration of green skills, that is, job skills related to sustainable activities, as well as the green jobs created or transformed.
Article Published May 25, 2022 on jamaica-gleaner.com
Bahamas: MORE BORROWING: Gov’t to borrow $700M to fund deficit
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Prime Minister Philip Davis yesterday gave notice to Parliament that the government intends to borrow some $700 million for the 2022/2023 fiscal year, as the government is forecasting a revenue intake of $2.8 billion and a total expenditure of $3.3 billion.
Following his presentation of 2022/2023 fiscal budget Prime Minister Davis gave notice that the government plans to borrow $439,282,887 and $251,419,140 to finance the deficiency of revenue over expenditure for the 2022/2023 fiscal year.
During his budget presentation, Davis also said that the government will be seeking Parliamentary approval for a Supplementary Budget for the additional recurrent expenditure of $216,928,017 and a capital expenditure of $34,491,123. He noted that his administration still has a number of inherited arrears that it believes must be liquidated.
Davis said that total revenue is projected at $2.8 billion, a 19.9 percent increase over the prior fiscal year when the economy was in the early stages of an economic rebound from the COVID19 pandemic. He further noted that in the budget for the fiscal year 2022/23, VAT collections are estimated at $1.4 billion, a 52.4 percent increase over the prior year’s budget.
“The increase is largely attributed to a rebound in economic activity, the economic stimulus associated with the reduction in VAT from 12 percent to 10 percent, as well as the positive benefits of the removal of the COVID-19 Emergency Orders. Real property tax revenue is also forecast to improve by 6.7 percent to $169.4 million but remains below the more than $280 million in real property tax invoices issued annually. Enhancements in revenue administration are critical in further improving collections in this area,” said Davis.
He noted that total expenditure is forecast at $3.3 billion, with recurrent expenditure projected at $2.9 billion million, and capital expenditure estimated at $371.1 million.
“As a result of these operations which incorporate prudent fiscal management principles, the fiscal deficit under the current budget is estimated at $564.3 million or 4.3 percent of GDP,” said Davis.
The Ministry of Finance reported that during the first nine months of FY2021/22, total revenue increased by $617.6 million or 50.2 percent to $1.8 billion million, as compared to the previous year.
Key developments underlying the revenue performance were an increase in property taxes by an estimated $9.8 million to $96.6 million; an increase in receipts to $836.1 million over the nine-month period; and an improvement in gaming taxes by $21 million to total $37.5 million.
During the nine-month period of the FY2021/2022, outlays for recurrent expenditure expanded by $80.7 million or 4.2 percent to just over $2 billion compared to the same period in the prior year – representing 70.2 percent of the targeted spend.
Article Published May 26, 2022 on ewnews.com
Shares steady and yields drop on Fed minutes relief
MILAN — World stock markets broadly stabilized on Thursday and bond yields eased as no hawkish surprises from the latest U.S. Federal Reserve minutes helped soothe immediate worries over the impact of rate hikes on economic growth.
The account of the Fed’s May meeting showed a majority backed rate hikes of 50 basis points in June and July to combat inflation, but appeared to leave policymakers flexibility to possibly change tack in September.
That softened bets of even more aggressive steps by the Fed, providing a degree of relief, although sentiment stayed fragile as uncertainty over the impact of inflation and rate hikes on economic and earnings growth continued to haunt investors.
“It would have been difficult to be even more hawkish and so there is a bit of relief. But while things haven’t worsened, they haven’t improved either,” said Marco Vailati, head of research and investments at Cassa Lombarda in Milan.
“The environment hasn’t changed. Just see how hysterical is the reaction to even the slight earnings miss, especially for stocks with valuations tied to future profit growth,” he added.
U.S. futures wavered in European trade following Wednesday’s rally on Wall Street and by 1028 GMT S&P 500 e-mini futures were 0.16% higher but Nasdaq e-minis slipped 0.1%.
Europe’s pan-regional STOXX 600 equity benchmark index rose 0.2%, while a more subdued mood saw the MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fall 0.15%.
The MSCI’s benchmark for global stocks was up 0.1% at 631 points. The index is off the November 2020 lows hit this month but still down more than 16% so far in 2022.
“It’s very difficult for investors to navigate this market at the moment with high inflation, slower growth, rising interest rates and concerns about the Chinese (COVID-19) predicament, but also stagflation is looming as a potential issue at the same time,” said Ryan Felsman, a senior economist at fund manager CommSec.
All participants at the Fed’s May 3-4 meeting supported a half-percentage-point rate increase, the first of that size in more than 20 years, and “most participants” judged that further hikes of that magnitude would “likely be appropriate” at the Fed’s policy meetings in June and July, according to minutes from the meeting.
While some investors worry that overly aggressive interest rate hikes by the Fed could tip the economy into recession, Wednesday’s minutes seemed to suggest the Fed would pause its tightening streak to assess the impact on growth.
“The minutes are consistent with a range of policy options thereafter, but a slower pace of tightening seems the most likely course,” wrote Paul Donovan, Chief Economist at UBS Global Wealth Management.
The immediate attention is on Thursday’s Commerce Department release of its second take on first-quarter GDP, which analysts expect to show a slightly shallower contraction than the 1.4% quarterly annualized drop originally reported.
In Asia, Chinese blue-chips reversed earlier losses to rise 0.25% after struggling to find direction for most of the session, as investors fretted over signs of slowdown but took comfort in comments from Premier Li Keqiang on stabilizing the ailing economy.
South Korea’s central bank raised interest rates for a second consecutive meeting as it grapples with consumer inflation at 13-year highs.
In foreign exchange markets, the dollar fell closer to the one-month low hit on Tuesday. The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. unit against a basket of major peers, was down 0.24% on the day at 101.81.
U.S. Treasury yields eased. The 10-year yield fell to its lowest level since April and was last down 3 basis points (bps) at 2.720% and the policy-sensitive two-year yield declined 4.6 bps.
Crude oil extended a cautious rally on signs of tight supply, with Brent crude up 0.8% at $114.9 per barrel and U.S. crude up 1% at $111.38.
Spot gold was down 0.4% at $1,845.4 per ounce.
Article Published May 26, 2022 on financialpost.com
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