The Services Package that was adopted about a year ago was a step in the right direction but more needs to be done. Efficient and integrated financial markets are part of the first line of defence. In the United States, around 60% of a shock to a state’s GDP is cushioned by financial markets.
Our mandate is economic and financial policy, but we do not conduct those policies in a vacuum; we are to advise on policies for the betterment of the Barbadian society, and all its members. As I have been at pains to emphasize on more than one occasion, the outcome of any policy action depends on the individual responses of every producer and every consumer.