The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas was yesterday urged to intensify its focus on the digital economy as a new source of gross domestic product (GDP) growth post-COVID.

Omar Bello, economics affairs officer at the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), told Tribune Business that the digital economy and related services will continue to grow after those sectors that rely on human interaction, especially tourism, suffered a major contraction during the pandemic.

He suggested that COVID’s drastic impact on tourism may have been somewhat lessened if The Bahamas had concentrated on developing boutique resorts as opposed to mass market cruise passengers. “In the case of The Bahamas, I would like to highlight that given that your tourism sector, the cruise ships are very important. The Bahamas was one of the most impacted countries given the structure of the tourism that you have,” Mr Bello added.

“Hurricane Dorian was the worst hurricane that hit The Bahamas in the history of the Bahamas, and the cost was really high. Then what happened is that in The Bahamas, I will say that was one of the Caribbean countries that was most impacted by this COVID-19.”

Wayde Watson, the Ministry of Economic Affairs parliamentary secretary, said: “After growing modestly by 2.3 percent in 2021, the last ELCAC forecasts for The Bahamas, real growth in GDP is projected at 8.5 percent in 2022, which represents a difference of a 6.2 percentage increase over that period.

“The IMF (International Monetary Fund) forecasts lacklustre growth between 2023 and 2026 of an average of 1.7 percent per year. Thus the recovery is projected to be gradual, with risk towards the downside due to the country’s vulnerability to natural disasters.”

Mr Watson added: “This report prepared by the IDB and the ECLAC on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on The Bahamas economy is one such report which is very important to aid in the process of sound, evidence-based policy-making.

“It provides a sectorial accounting of the losses as a result of the pandemic, analyses key vulnerabilities and threats and, most importantly, provides recommendations to allow The Bahamas to build resilience against future security issues based on data and analytics.”