Global Debt to be the Focus of the 6th Caribbean Economic Forum

The Central Bank of Barbados’ 2019 Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Dr. Linda Tesar, and veteran regional journalist, Julian Rogers will attempt to answer the question “In a World of Rising Debt, How Can Caribbean Countries Stay Afloat?” during the 6th Caribbean Economic Forum, which takes place on Thursday, May 23, 2019 at 8:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. in Jamaica).

During the 90-minute forum, Rogers and Tesar, a professor of Economics at the University of Michigan, will examine how the increase in global debt, which according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) totalled US $184 trillion in 2017 – approximately US $86,000 per person – could affect regional economies, and what they can do to safeguard themselves, particularly if the world experienced another wide scale financial and economic crisis.

The event will be broadcast live on CBC TV8 and VOB 92.9 in Barbados, and on Digicel Play and CMC member stations across the Caribbean. It will also be streamed live on the Central Bank of Barbados’ website and Facebook page.

Facebook viewers will also be able to take part in an online discussion moderated by Simon Naitram, President of the Barbados Economics Society; Dr. Ankie Scott-Joseph, a lecturer in Economics at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill; and social commentator, Kyrstle Howell.

The Caribbean Economic Forum, which began in 2014, is part of the Central Bank’s Distinguished Visiting Fellow programme. That programme gives Barbadians and people across the region access to some of the world’s leading economists. Previous fellows include Dr. C. Fred Bergsten, founding director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics; Dr. Patrick Honohan, former Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, who helped shepherd his country through its worst financial crisis in a generation; and most recently, Professor Andrew Rose, the B.T. Rocca Professor of Economic Analysis and Policy at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.