In contrast to largely self-reliant countries like the US, countercyclical government spending in small open economies like Barbados is of limited use, and may have lethal consequences. BIS Review 153/2009  1  In the US each extra dollar of income earned occasions no more than 23 cents of spending on imports.
That means that when the US government spends $ million to pay wages for new public works, those wage earners spend almost $ million on goods and services provided by other Americans, and only a little over $ million on imported goods and services. In Barbados it is almost exactly the opposite. Our propensity to import is 76 cents of every dollar.