Immigration: Blame Bar Council, not us
The Immigration minister yesterday lashed out at suggestions that “inflexible” policies were preventing the Bahamas from becoming an international arbitration centre, adding that it was the Bahamas Bar Council which effectively determined whether foreign attorneys could be brought in.
Junkanoo Carnival a ‘wealth redistribution’
The Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival festival will amount to nothing more than a big concert if it is unable to generate greater tourism spend, the Opposition’s Finance spokesman said yesterday.
Bahamas covered Freeport ‘in dirt’
Freeport should not be taken over by central government control, the Opposition’s finance spokesman said yesterday, arguing that its Family Island failures gave the city no reason to believe it would have more success on Grand Bahama.
Baha Mar, Gov’t agree ‘progress’ but nothing else
Baha Mar and the Government last night continued to trade barbs over who was responsible for the $3.5 billion impasse and the delay of any resolution, although they agreed that some “progress” had been made during the Beijing negotiations.
Gov’t fiscal policy like ‘filling bucket with hole at bottom’
The Government’s fiscal policy was yesterday likened to “filling a bucket with a hole at the bottom”, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that “accelerated” spending cuts were vital to stabilising the public finances.
Carnival chief stands by $50m GDP impact
Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival’s chairman yesterday stood by his projection that the inaugural festival increased Bahamian gross domestic product (GDP) more than $50 million, with the event having a direct economic impact of $19 million.
Chamber chief: Target 9-10% jobless rate
Cutting unemployment to the “low double digits range” around 10 per cent was yesterday described by the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) chairman as a more realistic goal than the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) 50 per cent target reduction.
IMF urges Mortgage Relief Plan ‘successor’
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Government to abandon its proposed Mortgage Relief Plan and instead create a “specialised agency” to tackle the Bahamas’ bad loan crisis, with private sector credit having dropped to 2009 levels.
Angry fishermen make call to arms
Irate Bahamian fishermen are being forced to take the law into their own hands because they are convinced the Government is serious about cracking down on illegal poaching, the Bahamas Commercial Fisherman’s Alliance (BCFA) president said yesterday.
IMF ‘discourages’ foreign currency borrowing to boost reserves
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Government to stop borrowing in international currency simply to boost the external reserves, which at $839 million at end-March were “low” and below the ‘three months’ worth of imports’ benchmark.
Gov’t ‘lagging’ over public entity reform
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Government to speed up reforms at Bahamasair and the Water & Sewerage Corporation, and eliminate their collective $60 million “drag on the public finances”.
Carnival marketing to begin ‘early fall’
The Bahamas Junkanoo Festival Commission’s chairman (BNFC) yesterday said it expects to begin its international marketing campaign for next year’s event by early fall 2015, with the low ratio of foreign to local participants at the inaugural event due to a late promotional push.
IMF raises ‘jobless cut’ growth to 7%
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday upped the average five-year GDP growth rate that the Bahamas needs to both absorb new workforce entrants, and slash the existing jobless rate in half, from 5 per cent to 7 per cent as it urged this nation to rapidly tackle “structural impediments”.
Baha Mar urges Gov’t: Pressure CCA equally
A Baha Mar director last night urged the Government to apply equally “sustained pressure” on the project’s contractor, which it has accused of “inflexibly pocketing” all the developer’s settlement concessions but not responding with its own.
Baha Mar’s $408m property tax breaks equal 70% of arrears
Baha Mar’s estimated $407.714 million worth of real property tax breaks are equivalent to more than 70 per cent of the total arrears owed to the Government at the end of the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
