In Jamaica, for instance, headline inflation for the 12-month period ended March 2008 was 20 per cent; here at home, our latest data show headline inflation at 10 per cent and an IMF mission that just left Barbados projected a rise in inflation to 9 per cent this year from 4 per cent last year.
Inflation in the ECCU which generally hovered at around 2-3 percent is now around 6.1 per cent (Chart 6). BIS Review 99/2008  1  Against this background (and allowing for the inflation surge), the question that I would like to pose is, why are the global economic conditions not putting a greater damper on the region?