Sir Dwight: More active policies needed

Governor of the East Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Sir Dwight Venner, has called for the sub-region to pursue more active policies to lock in the gains from 2004, build on them and achieve critical development objectives. {{more}}

This he recommended against the background of challenges being faced by the monetary union from both external and domestic factors, which could threaten the continuation of growth.

Those factors, he noted, included high oil prices, increase in international interest rates, the impact of changes in trade regimes and the performance of the US dollar against other international currencies. He also noted that the domestic factors would be fiscal and debt issues and the need for increased productivity and competitiveness.

The Governor therefore urged the countries of the East Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) to revisit five objectives set by the OECS Authority in November 2002. These include a growth of 6 percent; a reduction in unemployment levels; a reduction in poverty levels to at least 6 percent; the maintenance and improvement of their Human Resource Indices and the transformation of the economies into highly productive, adaptable and competitive entities.

He noted that the Authority had identified policy instruments toward achieving those objectives via Monetary and Fiscal Policies; Incomes and Structural Policies and Trade and International Economic Relations Policies.