2015: Barbados is a competitive, high quality provider of IBFSs. International companies are able to increase their competitive offerings on the global market by judicious use of Barbados' IBFS centre. The economic logic that is driven by competitive forces is what drives expectations of continuing growth of IBFS services in Barbados and elsewhere.
2015: The independence of the central bank allows it to stand in for Government in the provision of infant industry finance in appropriate forms and linked to demonstrated performance, measured against clearly stated objectives. ….. For economies such as [those of the Caribbean], financial stability is the means to an end, that is, financial development. In pursuit of financial development the central bank may play the vital role of providing performance related finance for innovation, by virtue of its independent stature within the public sector.
2016: Exchange rate devaluations have been used by economies around the world in an attempt to enhance their external price competitiveness. This paper evaluates the efficacy of this strategy in small-island developing states. We classify countries around the world into two broad categories, large or small according to population, land area and economic size, proxied by GDP. We compare large countries with small countries according to the following dimensions: the country’s share of world export markets, the diversity of exports of goods and services, the elasticity of import demand for consumer and producer goods, and the sensitivity of prices and wages to exchange rate changes. Using these results, we assess the efficacy of devaluation as a competitive strategy in small states as well as in larger countries.