THE REAL STORY ON ECONOMIC GROWTH FOR THE BAHAMAS

Neil Hartnell, the British muckraker, who runs the Business Edition of The Tribune went looking for dirt in the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) report on our country’s economic performance. He found it. The dirt was that the IMF said the Government was forecasting a .9 per cent of GDP deficit in its 2023/24 budget, but the IMF thought that a more realistic budget deficit was at 2.9 per cent.  So old Neil Hartnell claimed that this blew a hole in the Government’s financial plans.  Two plus two where he went to school equal five. The fact is the report praised the Government’s management of the economy and revised its growth figure from 1.8 per cent to 2.3 per cent.  As Michael Halkitis, the economic affairs minister said “ this is huge”.  Wel done Minister. Neil Hartnell: bah humbug.