Bridgetown.
Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley and Shadow Minister of Finance Mia Mottley, has accused the Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. DeLisle Worrell of confusing the public by issuing conflicting statements on the island’s fiscal situation within 24 hours.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Mottley said with the general election out of the way Government needed to be candid with the population, including telling them it’s
Medium Term Fiscal Strategy was a “failure”.
“I think that the Government needs to come to the country and admit that things are not
stable, admit that there is now need for a major adjustment. The elections are out of the way, they have won the election, the reality is they are the government,” Mottley said in reaction to the Central Bank’s first quarter review of the economy, which showed a contraction of 0.4 per cent and a higher fiscal deficit.
The Opposition Leader said, Worrell sought to engage in a public relations exercise during his interaction with the media yesterday as he tried to do damage control after saying on Tuesday in a prepared statement that Government’s fiscal strategy needed to be put back on track and a new adjustment was required.
“Six weeks ago we were being told that the economy is stable, that the Government must be given another chance and now six weeks later we were being in the written report of the Central Bank that the Medium Term Fiscal Strategy is not on the right track and that we need to get it back on the right track and indeed new language is being used now of adjustment,” says Mottley.
“ Yet the governor confused the issue by trying to insist with the journalists that we are on the right track. So that one wonders whether Wednesday was not about public relations and Tuesday was about a description of the economy and the state of Government’s finances.
“I am going to discount what I heard today, because I really do believe that today’s exercise was a public relations effort and go by what the Central Bank formallyreleaseyesterday in its first quarter report", Mottley said.
In that first quarter report it clear was that Government’s fiscal strategy needed adjustment to be back on the right track, and indeed that is what the Barbados Labour Party has been saying for some
time,” she added.
You must be logged in to post a comment.