Cyber Monday yet to catch on for local retail
Bahamian electronics retailers yesterday said “Cyber Monday” means little to them, with several instead believing a pre-Christmas clearance event will generate better economic returns.
Security firms struggling to ‘keep up’ with demand
Bahamian security firms yesterday said they “can’t keep up” with demand for their services ahead of the upcoming Christmas season that typically coincides with a spike in crime.
VAT rate hike slashed consumption by $2bn
Consumer spending shrank by $2bn in the year after the Minnis administration hiked the VAT rate to 12 percent, the Auditor General’s Office calculated in a newly-released report.
‘From headwinds to hurricanes’: Minnis denies 15% VAT increase
The former prime minister yesterday “categorically” denied that he planned to “turn headwinds into a hurricane” if re-elected by following the IMF’s recommendation to hike VAT to 15 percent.
Ex-Parks chairman blasts PM’s ‘unfounded’ claims
The Bahamas Public Parks and Beaches Authority’s former executive chairman last night said he “resents” accusations levied against him by the Prime Minister and branded them “unfounded”.
Minnis: Cruise giant’s PI lease is too long
Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday tacitly admitted that the effective 150-year Crown Land lease granted to Royal Caribbean on Paradise Island was too long as he sought to defend the deal.
Ex-PM slams ‘heartless’ VAT breadbasket return
The former prime minister yesterday slammed the Davis administration’s decision to eliminate VAT-free breadbasket food items and medicine as “heartless and disgraceful”.
PM: VAT refunds were disguised to blame PLP
The Prime Minister yesterday accused the former Minnis administration of disguising millions of dollars in VAT refunds as unpaid “arrears” that could be blamed on a former PLP administration.
NIB reserves still ‘stable’ at $1.6bn
A Cabinet minister yesterday said the National Insurance Board’s (NIB) reserve fund “remains stable” at $1.6bn despite multi-million dollar COVID-related unemployment benefit payouts.
‘A real dampener’: Fear over new COVID strain
The emergence of a new COVID-19 strain threatens to put “a real dampener” on Bahamian tourism’s rebound and that of the wider economy in the Christmas run-up, it was feared yesterday.
Cruise lines ‘bullied’ Gov’t over port fees
Nassau’s port was “starved of funds” because the cruise lines had “bullied” successive administrations into levying less than $1 per passenger, an ex-tourism minister has asserted.
Bahamas exports drop 40% in 2020
Bahamian goods exports declined by 40 percent in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been revealed, with those entering the US under trade preference regimes hitting a ten-year low.
Hotels ‘can’t ask for more’ over post-COVID rebound
Bahamian resorts are seeing the high-occupancy Christmas period expand by 50 percent, a top hotelier has revealed, adding of the post-COVID rebound: “We couldn’t have asked for more.”
Our daily bread
ActivTrades
All Christians in this world pray hundreds of millions of times for “our daily bread” every new day.
Baha Mar judge seeks Bahamian judicial help
A New York judge has signed off on requests for Bahamian judicial help over the British Colonial Hilton’s sale and other issues relating to Sarkis Izmirlian’s $2.25bn fight with Baha Mar’s contractor.
