By NAN Business Writer
News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C., Tues. Jan. 9, 2023: The South American CARICOM nation of Guyana is the lone Caribbean Community member set to achieve double digit GBP growth this year according to World Bank forecasts.
According to the ‘Global Economic Prospects” for January 2024, Guyana will likely reach a whopping 38.2 percent real GDP growth this year compared to 29 percent in 2023.
No other Caribbean nation is forecast to get to double digits.
“The Caribbean economies are expected to grow 7.6 percent in 2024 and 5.4 percent in 2025, after expanding 4.6 percent in 2023,” the authors of the report said. “Excluding Guyana, which remains in a resource-based boom since the discovery of oil in 2015, the region’s growth is expected to accelerate to 4.1 percent in 2024 and 3.9 percent in 2025. However, prospects are uneven across the sub-region.”
The World Bank added that “the post-pandemic recovery of tourism in the sub-region is incomplete and is expected to continue driving growth.”
Additionally, “remittances into the Caribbean are also expected to continue increasing, albeit at a slower pace.”
The second highest growth of 5.1 percent is set to be recorded by the Dominican Republic amid structural reforms to attract FDI, and the third highest by Dominica of 4.6 percent.
Barbados is forecast for 4 percent growth, the fourth highest for the Caribbean but a drop from 4.6 percent in 2023. Grenada is forecast for 3.8 percent, a drop by one percentage point from last year.
Here’s where the other Caribbean nations line up:
Belize – 3.5 percent, a drop from 4.5 percent last year.
Jamaica – 2 percent, down from 2.3 percent in 2023.
St. Lucia – 2.9 percent, down from 3.2 percent last year.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines – 4.8 percent, down from 6 percent in 2023.
Suriname – 2.6 percent, up from 2 percent last year.
The Bahamas – 1.8 percent, a drop from 4.3 in 2023.
Haiti – 1.3 percent, up from -2.5 percent last year.
