The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Institute of Charted Accountants (BICA) president yesterday said it was “critical” for the Bahamas to develop a series of benchmarks that the credit ratings agencies can use to measure its performance.

Gowon Bowe, commenting on Standard & Poor’s (S&P) latest assessment, argued that the absence of a formal growth/fiscal plan with key performance indicators would likely leave this nation’s performance open to interpretation.

He told Tribune Business: “One aspect that’s very clear is that they have heard a lot of our story before, and they are very much focused on seeing actual results of the various initiatives. I think while we have given them reason for optimism, their commentary is about having to see it materialise.

“Their stable outlook still says that they have to see several of the things materialise. I think that we, as professional bodies like BICA, the legal profession and financials service providers, need to sit down with government and other industries and realise that it is critical that we articulate the plan.”

S&P in its latest Bahamas country assessment, expressed confidence that the Minnis administration’s fiscal reforms will “arrest the deterioration” in the Government’s deficit and the national debt.

It added that the “strong mandate” granted by the Government’s May 2017 general election victory had created a ‘window of opportunity’ in which to implement fundamental reforms, and set the Bahamas on a new economic and governance track.

However, S&P’s warning that the reforms will take time to pay off is likely to alarm the Minnis administration, given that increasingly fickle Bahamian electorates are demanding instant results and improvements in their daily lives. As a result, the ‘honeymoon period’ for incoming governments has shortened considerably. S&P also projected that the Bahamas will see only “slightly higher real GDP growth” over the next three years, pegging this at an average of 1.4 per cent. The rating agency is forecasting that the Bahamian economy will expand by 1 per cent this year, and by 1.5 per cent in both 2018 and 2019. These estimates are lower than the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF), which in its October outlook predicted that the Bahamas will see GDP growth of 1.8 per cent and 2.5 per cent in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Mr Bowe added: “Reading between the lines, their commentary was around elements that were communicated and not presented on a formal plan. We need to say that over this period of time these are the things we want to achieve.

“We have to be very careful about speaking about projects in the pipeline or initiatives in the pipeline without having key performance indicators articulated, so that we can actually say what it is we have achieved and we can present our success story in a concrete manner. I think this time we were given the benefit of the doubt.”