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Water Corp: $1.2m claim was resort financing ploy
The Water & Sewerage Corporation has defeated a $1.227m damages claim for trespass that it alleges was merely a ploy attempting to force it to finance a planned Andros eco-resort.
Skills transfer woe still a ‘sad reality’
The Bahamas must change “the sad reality” that key skills and knowledge are not being passed on to local workers by expatriate work permit holders, a prominent contractor argued yesterday.
CCA: WE SHOULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF BAHAMAS – Contractor reached out for help to son of top govt advisor
Baha Mar's main contractor asked the son of Perry Christie's top policy adviser to intervene when his father proposed changing The Pointe's Heads of Agreement over how many Bahamian construction workers would be employed.
S&P: Gov’ts fiscal, economic reforms ‘will take time’ to work
* 1.5% average growth forecast lower than IMF’s * Grand Lucayan closure takes out 7% of rooms * Debt to rise through 2020 to 52% of GDP
THE Government’s fiscal and economic reforms will take time to “pay dividends”, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) warned yesterday, as it took a more ‘bearish’ view of the Bahamas’ growth prospects. The rating agency, in its latest Bahamas country assessment, expressed confidence that the Minnis administration’s fiscal reforms will “arrest the deterioration” in the Government’s deficit and the national debt.
Chamber urges: ‘Tighten up and enforce’ Enterprises Bill
THE Chamber of Commerce yesterday urged the Government to “tighten up the language”, and enforce the provisions, in the Commercial Enterprises Bill to prevent potential abuses.
Union chief: ‘No way’ would I breach law and Bar regulations
A trade union leader yesterday said there was “no way” he would have agreed to an illegal ‘contingency fee’ in taking on Sandals Royal Bahamian all the way to the Privy Council.
Gov’t narrows inner city taxation breaks
The Government yesterday appeared to narrow its planned VAT and inner-city ‘tax breaks’, while seeking to deliver on campaign promises of accountability, transparency and good governance.
McCartney: ‘Look elsewhere’ for Baha Mar purchaser
The Democratic National Alliance’s (DNA) leader yesterday said Baha Mar’s potential purchaser would not be granted a casino licence if the Gaming Board “did proper due diligence”, as he accused the Government of “playing with fire”.
Tourism ‘softness’ exposed with 7% room revenue fall
Tourism “softness” resulted in a 7 per cent year-over-year decline in peak winter room revenues for Nassau’s major hotels, with both occupancies and pricing coming under pressure.
$6.6bn debt ‘well beyond’ the need for stabilisation
The Bahamas is “well beyond” the point where it merely needs to “stabilise” its $6.6 billion national debt, a former Chamber chairman said yesterday, as he warned that the economy was showing “no desire for growth”.
Ex-Hard Rock franchisee queries transfer to ex-MP
Hard Rock Cafe's former Nassau franchisee has questioned why the business was so readily handed to its Bahamian landlord, when a decade earlier he had been "forced" to pay $1 million to end their partnership.
IDB: Bahamas needs $560m 'adjustment'
The Bahamas needs a $560 million "adjustment" at present growth rates just to cut its debt-to-GDP ratio to 60 per cent by 2021, amid warnings this nation now lies on the fiscal "dark side".
IDB: Baha Mar to up jobless rate 2%
The Bahamas’ unemployment rate will jump by as much as two percentage points due to the 2,000 Baha Mar lay-offs, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is predicting, virtually eliminating the May 2015 decrease.
Chamber chief ‘tired’ of sour economic reports
The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce’s (BCCEC) chief executive is “tired” of receiving repeated negative economic reports on this nation, which needs to become “more agile” to reverse course.
Baha Mar remains Gov’ts economic ‘Achilles heel’
THE Bahamas Chamber of Commerce’s (BCCEC) chief executive yesterday said he was “sceptical on the timelines” for a Baha Mar resolution, describing the $3.5 billion project as the Government’s economic “Achilles heel”.
Bahamasair suffers $8.5m income loss
BAHAMASAIR has warned the trade union rep- resenting its line staff that it faces “stark financial realities”, having lost $8.5 million in income this financial year with the possibility of further setbacks to come.
IMF slashes Bahamas 2016 growth to 1.5%
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slashed its 2016 growth forecast for the Bahamas by a further 0.7 percentage points to just 1.5 per cent, due to the Baha Mar impasse.
Bahamas breaks global standards with jet fuel tax
The Bahamas is breaching international standards by levying 7 per cent import duty on jet fuel, warns a report produced for the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
BTC profits slump 26.4%
The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) suffered a 26.4 per cent profits slump for the year to end-March 2015, as its revenues and staffing levels came under pressure in the run-up to mobile liberalisation.
Court: ‘No deal’ for 25,000 acre property
An $11.5 million deal to purchase the 25,000 acre property that was once Long Island’s largest employer cannot be concluded because there was never “an enforceable sales contract”, the Privy Council ruled yesterday.
