THE ECONOMY GROWS BY 2.6 PER CENT

The Lynden Pindling International Airport arrivals hall on Thursday 28 March 2024

There is a story told which was meant to demonstrate the animus which the right wing press has against the Black President of The United States Barak Obama.  It is said he and the Pope were in a boat and the Pope fell out of the boat and needed rescue. Mr. Obama jumped out of the boat, walked across the water and collected the Pope and brought him back to safety.  The next day, the headline in the press ran” OBAMA CAN’T SWIM.”  We thought of that story when the press in The Bahamas reported the 2.6 per cent growth of the Bahamian economy last year as announced on 25 March 2024 by the Bahamas National Statistical Institute. Here’s what the Bahamian press had to say: “real GDP growth in 2023 was just 2.6 percent – an outcome that was around $200m lower than both the Central Bank and IMF had forecast. Still, that growth rate represented a $330m expansion in Bahamian economic output to $12.831bn, which pushed this nation beyond the pre-COVID GDP record of $12.616bn set in 2018.”  Give with one hand and take with the other.  Bottom line though: there was growth in our economy last year under the PLP.