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Throughout 2021, the Central Bank of Barbados was involved in a number of initiatives and activities both related to its core objectives of maintaining Barbados’ fixed exchange rate and promoting financial stability; and more broadly to supporting and promoting the arts, education, and culture.
This article, the first in a four-part series, looks back at some of the Bank’s activities and initiatives over the past 12 months. Read parts two and three here.
All eyes were on the Central Bank of Barbados in early 2021 as Barbadians waited to learn how severely the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to contain its spread had impacted Barbados’ economy.
During the Bank’s quarterly press conference at the end of January, Governor Cleviston Haynes revealed that the economy had contracted by almost 18 percent during 2020, largely due to the shuttering of the tourism sector, which saw a 90 percent falloff in long-stay arrivals between April and December, as the pandemic was raging.
Governor Haynes also revealed that Barbados’ debt-to-GDP ratio had risen to 144 percent, explaining that this was due to both increased borrowing to support the additional spending that was needed during the pandemic and the double-digit decrease in GDP.
A spike in the number of COVID cases in early January forced the cancellation of a planned in-person Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Awards ceremony and delayed the announcement of the winner. The event ceremony ultimately took place as a virtual event in early February, at which Linda M. Deane was announced as the top entrant for her work An Ocean Away, My Mother Smiling: Tales of Migration and Memory.
During an interview, Deane revealed the inspiration for her work:
“It is about my mother, and it’s about memory and about migration. It was inspired by her life, but only really started to come together as our family – my sister and myself and my father – had to come to grips with her Alzheimer’s. And I figured, you know, she’s been migrating all her life. She migrated to England back in the 50s, and migrated from England to other parts of the world. We migrate in so many different ways, and it struck us that this illness of hers, which is so cruel, is yet another migration. And so, the collection is a way to tie all these forms of migrating together.”
On March 16, Sir Courtney Blackman, the Bank’s first and longest serving Governor, passed away at the age of 88.
In announcing his passing, Governor Haynes said that Sir Courtney’s “vision has been the cornerstone of the Bank since its inception, and his influence is still felt in many of our activities, both economic and social,” and reflected on his time serving under Sir Courtney.
In the days that followed, tributes poured in for Sir Courtney, including from Prime Minister the Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, who described him as a “a true Barbadian legend, patriot, and pioneer.”