Ralph Thorne suggest governments claimed economic growth is hoax in response to budget

Barbados: Opposition leader Ralph Thorne has been spearheading an attack on the Government's positive claims of economic functioning in the region, going as far as to state that “they have lost touch with reality”.

The opposition targeted the statement from the government claiming that Barbados’s economy is “abuzz with activity”. Thorne has been asking Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s led administration to be honest about the true state of affairs in relation to the nation's economy and to do it quickly.

Thorne states “This country is in trouble and the sooner government admits it, the sooner this government begins to tell the people of Barbados the truth of inflation, that it is crippling this economy, the sooner this government explains that national crisis that dilemma in the lives of people, the sooner you begin to admit it, you may win a place back in the hearts of the people, but I suspect the hour is too late in your cocoons of comfort…. In this government’s cocoons of comfort, they have lost touch with reality.”

In response to PM Mottley’s speech at the budget hearing on Tuesday, Thorne rebutted by suggesting that any economic growth that has taken place past the Covid-19 Pandemic is not “real growth” he goes on to say “And where you have rampant inflation, what appears to be growth is really not growth, it is inflation.”

Thorne suggested that various economists from and beyond the region deny the government's claimed position, he explains his position in the statement “All you have had is inflationary growth and that is what this government has been doing over the past few years. The government has been measuring economic growth by a dollar value. The government has been attaching inflationary figures to the question of growth, to the question of the exchange of goods and services. That is what the government has been doing.”

During the session PM Mottley shared that Barbados is moving into its 12^th consecutive quarter of growth at the end of this month. The National Union of Public Workers (NUWP) has expressed its disappointment in the fact that no tax reductions were announced in the financial statement and budgetary proposal sessions that took place earlier this week, however, they too have expressed their gratitude with the various positive steps made in the proposal from their point of view which are likely to provide an incentive to increase productivity in the nation.